Let the Right Book In

I’m so used to reading horror short story collections that it was refreshing to read a collection with a different theme - in this case, the ageing process and death. However, Stone Mattress is still delightfully dark and witty, everything I would come to expect from Atwood. “He drowned his sorrows, though like other drowned things they had a habit of floating to the surface when least expected.” What I loved most about this collection was that a lot of the stories featured elderly protagonists, an often forgotten about group of people in fiction. But do not be fooled... these old people aren’t cute little grannies who mean no harm. They’re devious, sometimes scheming and up to no good! The title story was my FAVOURITE. An elderly woman is on an arctic cruise and encounters a man that had abused her in her youth. No spoilers here, but I loved how this one ended up! Another highlight was The Dead Hand Loves You, wherein an author makes a deal with his flat mates to split the...

Reviewing collections is so difficult, and my brain is literal mush right now, so I’ll make it easier by breaking it down story by story. “A woman who would steal your love when your love was really all you had to give was not much of a woman.” The Langoliers might possibly be my favourite in this collection. It grabbed my attention from the very beginning and didn’t let go! Flying is scary enough, but imagine waking up from your on-flight snooze to find the plane practically empty.... eerie stuff. 4 stars. I have never watched the movie for Secret Window featuring Johnny Depp before so I went into the novella (Secret Window, Secret Garden) knowing absolutely nothing. Which was probably a huge reason why I did find it quite enjoyable. Although somewhat predictable, I enjoyed the themes and the general storyline around every author’s worst nightmare - accusation of plagiarism. 4 stars. As for The Library Policeman... geez, that was hard-going. An entertaining story, but ...

The Stranger Beside Me remains my favourite Bundy book, but for those whose Bundy itch can never be scratched, The Only Living Witness is well-worth your time! “We are your sons and we are your husbands and we grew up in similar families.” Quite a significant part of it is in Bundy’s own words, as the authors recorded their interviews with Bundy and included these conversations in the book. It’s obviously incredibly interesting to hear details directly from the man himself, but at times his thoughts can become meandering to the point where they’re almost non-sensical. It’s also irritating as he talks about the killer in third person, since for most of the book he is denying his involvement in any of the murders. Otherwise the detail is GREAT. Events are relayed chronologically for the most part, and I really enjoyed learning exactly what Bundy got up to during his two escapes from prison. His journey through the mountains near Aspen, Colorado, for example. Fascinating stuff...

FINALLY. I have found my first five star book of the year that wasn’t a reread or non-fiction! This book is basically Desperate Housewives set in the late 80s/early 90s and the housewives started a true crime book club, only for a vampire to move in down the street... sounds awesome, right?! “Sometimes she craved a little danger. And that was why she had book club.” It’s a hell of a lot of fun, simply unputdownable, but it also tackles some more hefty issues that were relevant at the time, like the under-appreciation of housewives, gender roles, and socio-economic divides between neighbourhoods. Wait... these are all still relevant... but even more so back then! Add in Hendrix’s unmatched talent for pop culture and his ability to make you squirm in your seat and you’ve got a book that will appeal to a LOT of readers! (I’m not kidding, one part played into one of my biggest phobias and I had to keep taking deep breaths to finish that section) The constant references to true ...

First of all, thank you to @penguinukbooks for the gifted copy! I had a bit of a mixed experience with this one, but can really see it appealing to certain readers. “Mr Jitters is coming.” Lola is the daughter of horror film director, Nolan Nox, whose most popular movie Nightjar was filmed in Harrow Lake - a town that relies heavily on the tourism that the movie brings. But this town has its own secrets, as well as it’s disturbing town legends... This had a real 80s horror movie vibe, which obviously I dug a lot. A creepy town, a cult horror movie, urban legends... it’s ticking a lot of boxes! And some scenes were genuinely unsettling. Another bonus is that Harrow Lake is a certifiable page-turner, it might just keep you up beyond your bedtime... The town’s urban legend, Mr Jitters, was also delightfully creepy. Unfortunately, I found the protagonist Lola to be incredibly annoying. In fact, her annoyance levels were OPTIMAL. She quite literally commented on whether ever...

Marking this one down as one of the books that has surprised me the most this year! I expected an action-packed chase with lots of violence, but what I got was so much more. “You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.” One day Llewellyn Moss finds a pickup truck surrounded by a bodyguard of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back. When Moss takes the money, he sets off a chain of catastrophic violence that not even the law can contain. I wholeheartedly loved this book. Sure, it’s bleak and hopeless, but it leaves you with a lot to think about. You think this is a typical thriller about a badass pursuing a regular guy who should have left well enough alone, but it ultimately evolves into a brooding analysis of fate vs free will, and also good vs evil. These are themes I love to read about, hence why East of Eden is one of my favourite books, and McCarthy really elevates it to another level. The chapters alt...

If all horror manga is as fucked-up and disturbing as Uzumaki, then my bank balance will have something else to worry about, in addition to my coffee addiction. “Spirals... this town is contaminated with spirals...” Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. However, the town is not haunted by a person or a being, but a pattern - uzumaki, the spiral. That synopsis sounds a bit ridiculous, doesn’t it? Yet Ito manages to make such a concept absolutely terrifying! His imagination reminds me of Clive Barkers in so many ways, I almost can’t fathom how they come up with such insane, disturbing ideas. The illustrations are INCREDIBLE, just mind-bending and horrifying. Some will live long in the memory! I loved how each chapter had its own self-contained story or theme, therefore it’s very easy to pick up and read a single chapter and still get a satisfying experience. Uzumaki really has it all: fucked-up body horror, Lovecraftian elements, boundle...

In 1980s Niagra Falls, 12-year-old Jake Baker and a pair of siblings who are new to town spend an unforgettable summer investigating local ghost stories and urban legends. “That magic gets kicked out of you, churched out, shamed out — or worse, you steal it from yourself.” A check-list for some of the things I love in books: - Beautiful writing where I want to highlight almost every single page - Nostalgic coming-of-age stories - Ghost stories/urban legends - Kids getting up to mischief on their summer holidays So already this book is ticking a lot of boxes! There are also loveable characters, with a special shout-out to Uncle Calvin. When you’re young there is nothing more cool than an older relative who is just a little bit different. I mean, if I had an uncle who was obsessed with urban legends and ghost stories AND he owned an amazing oddities store called The Occulatorium, I’m pretty sure I’d have wanted to hang out with him all the time too! There are so...

My brain hurts. It’s been worked out to the max with this book! However I’m incredibly impressed with how Crouch manages to make sci-fi accessible to all readers. (Although the real question is will my phone ever just fucking accept that sci-fi is a word and not just autocorrect it to sci-go??!) “Everything will look better in the morning. There will be hope again when the light returns. The despair is only an illusion, a trick the darkness plays.” A quick vague synopsis! At first, False Memory Syndrome is thought to be an epidemic spreading through its victims, driving them mad with memories of a life they never lived. But this is no pathogen, and Detective Barry Sutton is closing in on the truth... It is a truth universally acknowledged that I am not really a fan of thrillers. Sure, they’re fast, enthralling and addictive, but once I’m done I just feel dissatisfied. And that’s how I felt with Recursion. I had a fun time reading it (mostly), but it hasn’t really left a las...

Back in school when I was selecting which subjects I wanted to progress with for A-Level, my History teacher at the time tried to convince me to continue to study History. I told him that although I loved his classes, I knew we would cover more Northern Irish history and I just couldn’t face it. I had heard enough. It didn’t feel like “history” when it was still looming over our lives - relations have improved greatly, but a divide still exists. “All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory.” - Viet Thanh Nguyen.   Fast forward 15 years later and frankly I’m surprised that I even wanted to pick this up. Yet I’m glad I did because it has cemented itself as one of the best non-fiction books I’ve ever read - it was informative, accessible, and the story just felt human. Historical books can often feel like a lot of names and dates, coming across as cold and factual, but Keefe manages to narrate the story of The Troubles through focusin...