Genre: General

Curse of the Dead-Eyed Doll by..

Posted 07/24/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

I don’t normally read middle grade fiction, but when a book is marketed as both middle grade and horror, I give it a read. I’m happy to say that Curse of the Dead-Eyed Doll is a great example of both genres. Now you might be thinking “How scary can middle grade horror be?” and from an adult perspective, you’re quite right! To an adult, middle grade horror isn’t going to be scary. But to a child in the middle grade reading level, it could be quite scary. I actually found the book to be quite creepy. Were the things in it believable? Probably not. At least not if you’re someone who watches a lot of shows like A Haunting, Haunted Hospitals, or Paranormal 911. But not everything needs to be realistic to be scary. If it did, we wouldn’t have horror films, now would we? I found the story to […]

Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff ..

Posted 07/21/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

When Aurora Rising first came out, I wasn’t planning to read it. I’ve had a lot of trouble getting into the Illuminae series and thought this might be the same way, since it is from the same authors. Boy am I glad I decided to give it a try. The characters in this book are easy to love or hate. Squad 312 are an amazing group of characters. My favorites are Kal and Aurora((Yes, yes, I do very much ship them.)), but I really like Cat, Tyler, and Scarlett as well. Finian took some getting used to and I didn’t really like him until the very end of the book, but he finally grew on me. Princeps is an annoying jerk and honestly, I sincerely hope that the rest of the series ends with him getting his butt kicked. I loved the descriptions of some of the alien species that […]

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Posted 07/15/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

When I saw the cover to this book, I was intrigued. It’s the August book for the Barnes & Noble YA Book Club and I was anxious to see what the book was about. I can’t say the story was terrible, because it wasn’t. But there was no feeling, no emotion between the characters. Reese, Byatt, and Hetty are supposed to be such great friends, best friends, but the story doesn’t convey that. You’re told that they’re best friends, but you just don’t get that feeling from the story. Honestly, I think the only thing that truly kept me reading was wanting to see if an explanation for anything – the Tox, why they were being kept on the island – would be forthcoming. It does, but not in a very satisfactory way. Then there is the ending of the book. The end of the book left me feeling like […]

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legran..

Posted 07/09/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

If Stephen King wrote YA fiction, this book would be right up his alley. Don’t believe me? An evil creature – demon, devil, who knows? This thing comes from somewhere beyond our wildest imaginations. It feeds on teenage girls – at least until it can break free of its anchor. Doesn’t that sound like something straight out of a Stephen King horrorfest? Well, it does to me. Marion is sweet, plain, and well, the mountain on which her family leans. She can’t afford to be fanciful or whimsical. She can’t afford to take a break, because what will her mother or Charlotte do without her? But she’s so much more than that. She plays such an important part in the story and it’s so hard to talk about her without giving things away. Zoey is sweet, loving, but can hold a grudge like no one’s business. Her hatred of the […]

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Yo..

Posted 06/30/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I didn’t even know this book existed until Adrienne Young mentioned it and the second book in the Sky in the Deep series, The Girl the Sea Gave Back, in an Instagram post. I decided to see what she was referring to and I am so glad I did! This book has a feel to it that is hard to describe. The Gods seem almost like Norse Gods of old, yet they’re clearly not real Norse Gods. The book also has a very Braveheart and Last of the Mohicans feel to me, but that could just be me. I guess it’s the whole clans and being the last of their clans thing that makes me think of those. I love Eelyn’s character. She’s a warrior, she’s brave, she’s proud. She’s also scared out of her wits, afraid to die, and afraid to love. Her loyalty to her clan, the Aska, […]