Genre: Young Adult Fiction / Thrillers & Suspense / General

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam C..

Posted 06/03/2026 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’ve been trying to read Clown in a Cornfield since it first came out. I tried to get an ARC but failed, I tried to get it from the library but failed. Then I finally got it from the library, but couldn’t get into it. I was just about to give up when I was able to request it from NetGalley. I still couldn’t get into it – until I managed to snag the audiobook through the Libby app via my public library. Then… it clicked. Normally, I’d do the CAWPIRE review, but I think I’m going to just keep it low key today. I loved Quinn, Cole, and Rust. I liked Quinn’s dad. Wasn’t overly fond of the rest of the characters – although Janet was pretty cool. The rest of the cast was more or less window-dressing to me and I found myself more interested in Quinn and Cole than […]

Dead Fake by Vincent Ralph

Posted 12/15/2025 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Again, we all know I love horror and I love YA novels, so a combination of the two is a dream come true. Trust me when I say, Dead Fake by Vincent Ralph is no exception. Characters The characters in Dead Fake are relatable, even if you aren’t a teenager. I think we all know what it is like to have people treat us differently because of something we’ve been through, which is what Ava experiences as the niece of the most recent murderer in Bleak Haven. I’m sure we can all recall the pain of an unrequited love as well, which again, Ava experiences. Not to mention having a very small friend group, as Ava, Mason, and Willow have with each other. The characters are well written, and the ones who need backstory have it. There was a teacher whose backstory I’d love to read about so maybe one of the series could […]

Four Found Dead by Natalie D. ..

Posted 01/10/2025 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Four Found Dead was one of those books that took me a while to read – mostly because it was a case of “right book, wrong time”. I tried several times to read this book and just couldn’t stay interested. Last night, I decided I’d give it one more try before giving up and I’m glad I did. I started it at 10PM and finished at 3:45AM the next morning. Once I was able to properly get into the book, I could not put the book down. I had to know what was going to happen next. While we didn’t get to know all of the characters well, I have to say that my favorites were Naomi, Hudson, and Jo. However, I would like to have gotten Jo’s name a bit earlier in the book than we did, but it is what it is. And I would like to say […]

If You Can Hear This by Faith ..

Posted 06/21/2024 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

In my quest to work through my NetGalley queue, I started reading If You Can Hear This by Faith Gardner. I have another book by Ms. Gardner in my NetGalley queue as well, so I was hoping that I would enjoy this book. I did – immensely. What do you get when you mix a group of misfit kids who make up an audio/visual club, a missing teacher, and an apathetic town? You get If You Can Hear This. And believe me, this is a book you won’t want to miss. Our main characters – Posey, Sal, Jeremiah, Athena, Yash, and Lexy make up the Wild Pines High School AV Club. They each have their own unique perspectives on life and what’s happening. Posey is a girl who came to Wild Pines from San Francisco. She’s the new kid – she’s weird, quite a bit on the bossy side, and […]

The Haunting by Natasha Presto..

Posted 10/20/2023 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

If you’re looking for a Halloween themed YA horror novel, you won’t go wrong with **The Haunting**. But be warned, the title has nothing to do with ghosts. Characters We have a group of friends, one of them being ostracized by the town and the rest of the friend group – except for one person. They’re great characters, although you really only deal with two or three of them for most of the book. You’ll see Penny, Nash, and Zayn more than you’ll see any of the others, but they’re all mentioned several times as well. We don’t have a whole lot of background on any of them, but we don’t really need it and they’re written well enough that it doesn’t matter. Atmospere It’s a serial killer at Halloween – what more could you ask for in an atmosphere? It isn’t Michael Myers (and we can all be thankful for […]