Let the Right Book In

The Tommyknockers is a wild ride from start to finish. I wanted to get off so many times, but the sheer insanity had me holding on white-knuckled until the very end. “Late last night and the night before, Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers, knocking at the door.” Bobbi Anderson is out walking her dog in the area behind her house one day when she trips over a metal object buried in the ground. She becomes compelled to dig it up, discovering a flying saucer that has been buried for thousands of years.... The Tommyknockers is a bit all over the place - and this is of course easily explained by the fact that King wrote this under a haze of cocaine and alcohol, it was at the height of his addiction - some parts were SO GOOD, and I could easily fly through huge chunks. And then the pacing would slow waaaayyyy down, pages bloated with lots of unnecessary descriptions of batteries and Jim Gardener’s conspiracy theories... it was painful. I feel like there’s a good story in here. Som...

A solid 5 stars for the flashback portions of the book... but a meagre 2 stars for the present day sections. “It bewildered Ig, the idea that a person could not be interested in music. It was like not being interested in happiness.” My feelings for this one are a bit all over the place. The premise is that Ig Perrish wakes up after a heavy night on the drink, but he seems to have sprouted horns on his forehead. With this comes the side-effect of those around him telling him exactly what they are thinking. I oddly felt like I would have enjoyed it more if the supernatural aspect was removed? Which doesn’t make much sense as the horns obviously help with the progression of the story. This would help explain why I liked the flashbacks more - pre-horns, if you will. I loved learning about Ig and his relationship with Merrin, the girlfriend everyone thinks he killed, as well as getting more of an insight into the character of Lee. I just felt like the horns were kinda stupid?...

If anyone knows how to effectively review a book containing 100 short stories, please hit me up. I’ve just been sitting with this caption open for about 5 minutes, blankly staring at it... “I was in love, then, with monsters and skeletons and circuses and carnivals and dinosaurs and, at last, the red planet, Mars.” Where to begin! I will say that the range of genres covered by Bradbury is incredibly broad. You’ve got science fiction, fantasy, horror, and those stories that I just adore where Bradbury delivers little slices of American life. Those are my personal favourites. But I’ll highlight a few that stood out for me: - The October Game was an incredibly dark story centred on a game being played on Halloween night. I was almost taken aback at how dark it was... -  The Fog Horn. I had read this before but it is still one of the best short stories I’ve ever read. Just go into this one knowing nothing! - The Black Ferris was clearly Bradbury’s inspiration for So...

The quote below is reason number 1 why this book is so great - of course the serial killers themselves are so fascinating to read and learn about, but I also appreciate it when the ones who brought them down are celebrated as the heroes they are - and this book truly delivers in that regard! “In writing this book, we had a choice to make as well. Others have focused on portraying the evil; we wanted to give equal time to the people who stopped it.” Ken Landwehr in particular, who has since unfortunately passed away, showed some real restraint in making sure he did everything right to get this guy. For example, waiting until DNA testing improved, knowing he’d only get minimal chances to test it. The story of BTK is told in chronological order, and although it’s very fact-driven, I did not find it dry in the slightest. All the goings on behind the scenes is detailed, from what Dennis Rader was planning in between crimes, to what the police and investigators were working wit...

If you have yet to experience the heartbreakingly beautiful masterpiece that is The Book Thief, do yourself a favour and pick it up ASAP. “His soul sat up. It met me. Those kinds of souls always do - the best ones.” The Book Thief is a story narrated by Death, and when Death tells a story, you really have to listen. In WWII-Nazi Germany, following the death of her brother and being separated from her mother, Liesel Meminger goes to live with a poor foster family on Himmel Street. In such dangerous times, the family hide a Jew down in their basement and a beautiful friendship based on books and reading develops. The Book Thief is a story about the power of words. Back in WWII, Hitler used the power of words to spread hatred, whereas our protagonist Leisel claims the words back and uses them in their most powerful way, for friendship and love. So many beautiful characters live within these pages...my favourites being Hans, Rudy and Max. All very interesting and rich and ...

Nothing. beats. King’s. small. town. stories. And that’s a fact! “You’ve been here before.” A criminally underrated King novel (outside of bookstagram anyway), Needful Things is a firecracker. My paperback is 900+ pages and at no point did my attention or interest wane. This book is pretty much sheer chaos from beginning to end and I was LIVING for it!! The premise is simple. There’s a new store in Castle Rock, and no matter what your heart’s deepest desire is, it’s in stock. And the price is exactly what you can afford. You just gotta play a little prank for Leland Gaunt to get your hands on it... King’s ability to create a fictional town with an entire cast of real, distinguishable characters will never cease to amaze me. The way that Gaunt plays the town members off each other, demonstrating how dangerous materialism can be, is such a genius idea, and you can really feel that King is having an absolute blast writing this one! And I had a blast reading it. I was downri...

They say love is blind and The Phantom Prince truly epitomises this. Kendall wrote this book back in 1981, and in the after note she revisits her relationship with Ted Bundy all these years later, and this was really the most interesting part of the book. She reflects on how naive she was and that she wishes she could just erase some parts she had previously written. I’m glad I read this edition, as otherwise I would have been left incredibly frustrated at how she just continued to keep contact with him, even after he had been accused of such vile crimes. And the fact he was clearly in contact with other women too... But hey, it’s hard to judge isn’t it? “People have suggested that I have survivor’s guilt. I reject that. We all should be alive.” There’s also a short section written by Molly Kendall, Elizabeth’s daughter, who also spent a lot of time around Bundy as she was growing up, and some of the memories she recalled are just... horrifying. The stuff of nightmares. I’d ne...

I refuse to believe that Daisy Jones & The Six aren’t real. Even now a week after finishing it, when I look back I think of it as a really fun band biography that I read! It can’t be fictional, it just can’t. “I had absolutely no interest in being somebody else’s muse. I am not a muse. I am the somebody. End of fucking story." It was so much fun to get swept up in all the drama, drugs, sex and rock n’ roll. Having read a few biographies focusing on Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana, as well as Slash’s autobiography, I just LOVE getting some insight into what goes on backstage. Who is sleeping with who, who doesn’t know when they’ve hit their limit, who throws the most tantrums in the recording studio... I live for this shit! The interview style that Reid implements in Daisy Jones lends to racing through the pages, and simply being unable to put it down. Admittedly I was less enthralled in the last third or so as the events became somewhat predictable to me, but I was still ...

A reading experience: Me the first half of the book: Wow - this could be a new all-time favourite. The writing! The descriptions! It’s a book for book lovers. This might even be better than The Night Circus. Me the second half of the book: ...I’m confused. Am I meant to be following this? So. Many. Descriptions. Is this over yet? The Night Circus is definitely my favourite. “Strange, isn’t it? To love a book. When the words on the pages become so precious that they feel like part of your own history because they are.” I’m incredibly disappointed that I didn’t love The Starless Sea. It was amazing up until the point where I felt like I just couldn’t keep all the different strands and threads straight in my head. It was just TOO MUCH. And I still don’t get what the actual point was. If someone asked me to describe the plot I’d just be like “well... there’s this underground library thing... and it needs protected... for some reason” I’ve seen a few reviews likening i...