Let the Right Book In

A portrait of a woman's obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. I'll Be Gone in the Dark is the masterpiece that Michelle McNamara was working on when she tragically passed away in 2016. It's a chilling account of a criminal mastermind, The Golden State Killer, and the wreckage he left behind. "This is how it ends for you. "You'll be silent forever, and I'll be gone in the dark," you threatened a victim once. Open the door. Show us your face. Walk into the light." This was one of those surreal reading experiences that I'll never forget. I had been dying to get to this one, I needed a true crime fix, and so I decided on to start it on the Saturday. I was about halfway through when I woke up to the news on the following Wednesday that they had captured the suspected Golden State Killer. Cue obsessive scrolling through twitter all day and waiting impatiently for the news conference that evening. Prior to his capture, I ...

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a theonomic military dictatorship formed within the borders of what was formerly the United States of America. Women have lost their rights and each woman has a specific role to play. As a Handmaid, Offred's assignment is to produce children for the ruling class. If she should ever be found to be sterile, she would be exiled to the Colonies. "There is more than one kind of freedom," said Aunt Lydia. "Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it." How does one even review The Handmaid's Tale? I feel like I should just say something like "If you haven't read this yet, DO IT." End of review. But... I feel like this book deserves a full breakdown of my rambling thoughts, so here we go. This book was truly captivating, I was engrossed from the very first page. Usually I will read in my car before he...

Derek Gray goes to visit fellow writer Frank Marshall out at his remote house out in the forest. Frank has received an unusual letter from their friend Dizzy who is coming up to meet them, so Derek decides to hang around until he arrives. But then, things start to get really strange as the forest begins to exert its creepy influence over Derek… “There would never be any way he could leave his own mental prison, the wilderness within.” This book was weird. To be honest, I might have ended up tossing it to the side and not finishing if it weren’t so short. It starts out pretty interesting, a writer goes out to visit his friend who lives out in the wilderness and things start getting a bit creepy… but then it gets overly pretentious and I hate that kinda shit. Conversations between characters had me sitting there like….WTF was just said?! I’d say I’m relatively bright, but their dialogue had me wanting to reach for a dictionary on numerous occasi...

"I want to make you laugh or cry when you read a story... or do both at the same time. I want your heart, in other words. If you want to learn something, go to school." "I want to make you laugh or cry when you read a story... or do both at the same time. I want your heart, in other words. If you want to learn something, go to school." Overall, this collection was a winner for me! However, it does not surpass Night Shift - that one is pretty hard to beat, in my opinion. I thought it would be easiest if I just gave a quick overview for my thoughts on each story as there was only 14 in this collection. Nearly all of the stories got 4 or 5 stars from me - only two failed to meet the mark! Autopsy Room 4 - really great story that made me feel quite claustrophobic and panicked. Loved the ending in particular!! Trust King to come up with that (excuse the pun)! 4.5 stars The Man in the Black Suit - a lot of people had said how scary this one was, b...

A collection of American supernatural tales ranging from the years 1824 to 2000. Ghosts and elder gods and vampires and demons... oh my! "That's life for you," said MacDunn. "Someone always waiting for someone who never comes home. Always someone loving some thing more than that thing loves them. And after a while you want to destroy whatever that thing is, so it can't hurt you no more." - The Fog Horn. Ray Bradbury. This collection was a really interesting read, I really liked how the stories are presented chronologically, so it's almost like you can track the evolution of these supernatural tales and how they change over time.  However, in terms of the quality of the stories themselves, they were mostly hit and miss, but overall I'd say that the good outweighs the bad. I had the opportunity to reread some great stories such as The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, The Call of Cthulhu by HP Lovecraft and Night Surf by Stephe...

Convicted murderer, Sirius Black, has broken out of Azkaban and is on the hunt for Harry Potter. Dementors are called into Hogwarts for protection purposes and Harry forms a close friendship with the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, as the threat of Sirius Black grows ever closer. Basically, there's lots happening. "You think the dead we have loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don't recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble?" Okay, so I was pretty sure that Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite HP book in the series, and right now it's leading the charge! The ending of this book broke me and had me in tears. From this point forward I'm just gonna assume whoever is reading this has either read the HP books or has seen the movies - if not, what are you even doing here reading a review for the third book in a series, you psycho?? So there may be spoilers galore!! When I think of PoA, I think of Sirius Black. Si...