I love how the blurb talks about all sorts of events however we only get a small glimpse of things as this one takes place before and when the event hI love how the blurb talks about all sorts of events however we only get a small glimpse of things as this one takes place before and when the event happens and then it ends with some very scary moments. This was a fantastic read however and I was so invested. I loved Kiva. I didn't so much like that mom just left Kiva when things got scary, I would have liked her to take the dog with her in the search of her son.
Heel jammer dat Eden lekker ableist is met zijn/haar comment over dieren eten. Niet iedereen kan vegetariër zijn. Ach, dan ben ik maar debiel, beter dHeel jammer dat Eden lekker ableist is met zijn/haar comment over dieren eten. Niet iedereen kan vegetariër zijn. Ach, dan ben ik maar debiel, beter dan ableist. XD Verder wel een OK boek, heel lief dat de twee dat deden voor Benji....more
Mostly stories that are connected and follow a teen boy who can melt people's brain by apologizing (and he is connected to the devil) and his little sMostly stories that are connected and follow a teen boy who can melt people's brain by apologizing (and he is connected to the devil) and his little sister (who reminds me of another character in the series, at least she doesn't eat nails, haha). This was quite creepy and disturbing. I did like the connection and see how it all ended. And then we get two disturbing short stories, the one with the children was really WTF. ...more
Yep, I will stick to what I said, Junji Ito should stick to short stories, haha. This was a great collection of short stories, though some were a bit Yep, I will stick to what I said, Junji Ito should stick to short stories, haha. This was a great collection of short stories, though some were a bit eww for me (the dissection one for instance, or the girl having sex with a house), some were a tad too strange. But in overall, I am very happy and properly creeped out! Another Junji Itou read! I am making good way into my goal for this year~...more
*swoon* this was oodles of fun and I love that while it is a separate story it continues the story of the other issues. I also loved that this focused*swoon* this was oodles of fun and I love that while it is a separate story it continues the story of the other issues. I also loved that this focused on Frankie. Plus Johnny! The art was fab! Oh and I hope that that potion helped out some peeps. ...more
Haha, yes Junji Ito really needs to stick to short horror stories. This one was fab, weird, strange, and I couldn't stop reading. Oh, some I recognizeHaha, yes Junji Ito really needs to stick to short horror stories. This one was fab, weird, strange, and I couldn't stop reading. Oh, some I recognized from the anime. ...more
A girls' night out ends up in eating peacocks + a heightened grocery bill + well some other things. Our MC OMG OMG OMG OMG *flails* This was SO GOOD!
A girls' night out ends up in eating peacocks + a heightened grocery bill + well some other things. Our MC was a fun/interesting one and I was rooting for her to find the problem + figure things out along the way. I am also happy that she and her husband eventually got closer, in true Wendy Dalrymple style I thought he was going to be munched on, haha. I loved the ending, that was perfection. You could have gone x way, but she went a different one that I love even more.
Een heerlijk sprookjes-boek! Ik heb ook echt gelachen om wat stukjes en ik vond het geweldig geschreven want er zitten soms net wat andere dingetjes iEen heerlijk sprookjes-boek! Ik heb ook echt gelachen om wat stukjes en ik vond het geweldig geschreven want er zitten soms net wat andere dingetjes in. En de illustraties waren ook helemaal tof~...more
Another one from the Comics Plus app and boy I am so happy I got to read this one as it was on my list for a while! It was a cute sweet read about danAnother one from the Comics Plus app and boy I am so happy I got to read this one as it was on my list for a while! It was a cute sweet read about dancing, music, vampires, love, and more. With fantastic characters, several interesting characters, and a beat to drop dead by. It was so cute and I love the art. Definitely wouldn't mind more! ...more
Four spooky scary stories by Junji Ito! This was so fun/strange!
So my library is adding more and more manga (very slowly) and they recently added SoicFour spooky scary stories by Junji Ito! This was so fun/strange!
So my library is adding more and more manga (very slowly) and they recently added Soichi and this one, and I am hoping so much that they will be adding more Junji Ito as I have been meaning to read his works for a while now.
In this book we get 4 stories varying from wtf to weird to OK whatever. It was a good bundle and I am glad I was able to read it. Now I just need more.
Weeping woman: Star rating, 4 stars During a trip an engaged couple comes across a weeping woman which was already weird, but things got more and more weirder when the girl of the couple suddenly started crying as well. And you think that it is just minimal crying, oh no, the floodgates are fully open, she cannot do anything other than crying crying and crying. You can imagine how inconvenient and tiring it is so our couple takes a trip again and this time end up in a village full of weeping ladies which just weirded me the fuck out, not to mention some of the revelations that happened there were just like, oh ok oh ok fine. It wasn’t that scary, but it was sure an experience. And then the ending still needs to come by and well that one went up even more in weirdness. Despite the weirdness I really liked this story. Madonna: Star rating, 4 stars Haha, if you think it couldn’t get weirder, well here we are! Catholic boarding school with church and all that. Though this one got quite disturbing over the weirdness. I was rooting for our MC to actually survive all of this and get out safely because holy hell. People have salt in their ears (yes really), there is a crazy lady wandering around, a statue of Maria that is bleeding (and probably not for the reason you were thinking), and oh yes, the principal was a horrible disgusting human being pukes. Things got really out of hand the closer we got to the ending, holy heck. That was a RIDE. The Spirit Flow of Aokigahara: Star rating, 2.5 stars The worst story in my eyes. And mostly because it just went from creepy to hilarious. I am sorry, it is probably bad given the mental state of these guys, but the way the started looking after diving in that white stuff/the soul stream was just hilarious and they looked so silly. Not to mention how they acted. I was just laughing hard. And the rest of the story didn’t help it was so weird that I was just shaking my head and snickering at it all. The ending was also so weird. I had hoped for a lot of creepy things. Slumber: Star rating, 3 stars This was the scariest of them all but such a mindfuck and confusion that I cannot rate it higher than 3 stars. About a guy who dreams he murders people (in gruesome ways and goes in more and more paranoia as the bodies pile up and he finds stuff in this house that all hint to him being the culprit. Is he sleepwalking? It got progressively more disturbing and scary and I was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out if he was truly the culprit or not. Well, I can tell you, I still have no fucking clue. I mean that ending just made it all eh for me and I am still not sure what the heck happened. Something with memories? Something with implanting stuff? Something about therapy? I don’t know, if anyone can explain (in spoiler tags of course) do so.
All in all, I am very happy with this collection. It was at times very weird, but that is what I expected from Junji Ito, haha. Some stories just got a bit too strange for me. But I do want to keep reading and seeing what else there is.
“I wanted to walk into the water. I wanted to march straight into the ocean’s mouth and have it swallow me up.�
I found this book while walking through“I wanted to walk into the water. I wanted to march straight into the ocean’s mouth and have it swallow me up.�
I found this book while walking through one of my fav bookstores second-hand books and took a chance. I am definitely in a spooky mood + I do love a good short story collection. So this one had to come with me home, and boy I am so so glad I did because this was fantastic!
Reply Hazy, Try Again: Star rating, 4.5 stars: The MC wasn’t always likeable, but I did love the whole Magic 8 Ball going from your standard answers to some answers that shouldn’t be there, like our MC’s name, or other comments. It was a lot of fun to see how things escalated with each page and also see how our MC is slowly spiralling and making decisions that on the one hand I was happy with but on the other hand was WTF-ing about, haha. I am quite happy with the ending, though I hope that she got rid of the Magic 8 Ball after this. BTW, I would have yeeted that Magic 8 Ball way sooner. As soon as I would see my name pop up or getting more personal answers, BYYYEYEEEEEEEEE. NOPEEEE. XD But this was a good start to this collection!
Bachelorette: Star rating, 4.5 stars: A bachelorette party gone totally fucked up! I loved this, the opening sentence was just pure gold: “If I’d been told in advance about the blood sacrifice, I would have made up an excuse not to attend the bachelorette party.� I knew I was in for a heck of a ride. I mean, seriously, blood sacrifices at your pre-wedding party? WTF? But before that we get the party, we read about the friendship our MC had with the girl who is going to marry, about the fun times she had with her when they were friends, and how they drifted apart when they both went to different places. I felt for the MC as most of the group was college friends and they clearly were much closer. We see her struggle with things, and I seriously wanted to yeet some stuff at those girls for being such asses towards our MC. I could imagine the MC just drinking herself to oblivion, haha, I would have done the same. And then the blood sacrifice came by, and while I was a tad disappointed, it was still a ride. Some people are just crazy.
Goblin: Star rating, 4.5 stars: The hardest one to read because of my own problems. I struggled quite a bit, it was a good story so that is why I am giving it 4.5 stars, but dang, I had to take a few steps back at times because of everything, with my mental health and how I am struggling, but I persevered. In this one a girl is preparing for her ex’s wedding (why would you go to that, fuck that dude) and she and her friend download an app called Goblin. It is supposed to just tell you not to eat, warn you about your diet, and all that, but given all we learn about our MC and her problems with her body image + weight it takes a more literal form and she can truly see the Goblin walk around. Calling her names. Stealing her food. Making her feel bad. Things go from bad to worse to horrible and we see her just withering away. I was shocked that NO ONE seemed to notice, but then again, that is diet culture for you. Instead of trying to help someone, you compliment them on their weight going down. The ending though I hadn’t seen coming. HECK. That was a shock.
Bad Dolls: Star rating, 3 stars: My least favourite out the bundle. Still a good story at times, but I just had expected more scary doll and less mental health/less annoying MC. The doll was still scary when we got to see her, and I loved how things escalated more and more. From walking around, to waiting, to more violent bits, to even a medium calling our MC out. But the rest of the story was about loss, mourning, do I need to cry, what do I do now, parents who don’t get it, and other things. I didn’t like most of the characters and even the MC was a hard one to like, especially when she did that to her ex who is MARRIED. Everyone who knows me knows I hate that shit. BAH.
All in all, I had a great time reading this one and I flew right through it, I will have to see if I can get other Rachel Harrison books, not sure which one is next though I am eyeing both Black Sheep and Such Sharp Teeth! We will see~ I would recommend this collection, it is a fab horror collection.
I received this book from the publisher/Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.
I was so excited about this one, it sounded dark and scary, but in tI received this book from the publisher/Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.
I was so excited about this one, it sounded dark and scary, but in the end I am quite disappointed.
The main problem was that the first part, the POV of the girls or well Rosalyn, was just horribly hard to read. I read the blurb, I read the warnings in the back, I knew I was going in for a ride given I have been bullied myself, but holy shit I had not expected it to be THIS horrific from the start. From the get-go we see that this game is super toxic. A crown made of barbed wire for instance. Three girls around the same age and they are just bullying each other? Rosalyn just got back from punishment with the matron because she was in the garden� where she was finding her clothes again as one of the two girls yeeted those out of the window. There are constant threats, constant bullying, constant survival mode, constantly wondering what would be next. These girls were out for each other. And all that for a game. A game in which one of them will be queen and can order around the others. A game in which the bullying escalates. The pranks escalate. And then two more girls come into the orphanage and things escalate so much that I was just wondering if I should drop it. If I should just stop. Because this was just too much. These are 9-10 year olds, and kids can be cruel, but holy shit, these 5 were demons. Especially the two ringleaders, Sophie and Marie. I am still not sure which of these two I found the worst. Oh, did I mention the scepter? A hammer made of FUCKING nails. Yep. And they use it as well. In the mean time the Matron didn’t seem to give a damned about who was right or who was wrong and just hit the girls and punished them when she saw fit. It was just so messed up and I wanted to just yeet my Kindle at the wall. Then when you think things cannot get more fucked up it ends in flames.
Oh, and I know that this book is set in the early 1900s but WTF with not having any way at all out of the house.
Then at around 60% we go to another POV, the after. A man who can spirits is trying to help out with rebuilding the hall. Why the fuck people in horror books are always so eager to rebuild on ground with ghosts or death I don’t know, but it is messed up. Andrew acts like an ambassador. Yep. The girls are, even in death and hell and damnation, still playing the game. To the fullest. The crown is still in the game. The scepter is there as well. And the girls are not giving up. That is also why I had a hard time reading this one, the girls seem to know they were dead, that time had passed, that things were different, and yet they still wanted to murder each other. Andrew was an interesting character, though I found him the most interesting in the beginning when he wasn’t as entwined with the ghosts and the house. We see years pass, we see that the house is now just for tours (ghost tours it seems). No one can live in the house because the girls will want to play with them. And as I said in the previous part, the girls play mean.
I loved the epilogue with the guide to the house and the ghosts. That was by far my favourite part of the whole damned book.
Along with the cover which is so haunting now that I know what is going on. What that crown means. What that blood means. What those symbols mean.
But all in all, this was not my book of the year. I was just so angry, so horrified, so shocked, if I had known it was going to be this bad I wouldn’t have requested it. I would have just let it go by. The first part I can only rate 0.5 star, the second part gets a 2.5 star.
“Love wasn’t enough and trying wasn’t enough and nothing we did changed anything! It should have mattered. All that love and all that trying should ha“Love wasn’t enough and trying wasn’t enough and nothing we did changed anything! It should have mattered. All that love and all that trying should have changed � something…�
The second book by T Kingfisher that I read and I hope that I will read many more because so far I am loving them! This one, unlike the other, is fantasy (with a dose of horror), and a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and what a hecking good retelling it was! Flipping it all around, twisting and turning it, making it different and new.
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