Geoff's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 17 Apr 2025 10:51:29 -0700 60 Geoff's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage]]> 139069 The harrowing tale of British explorer Ernest Shackleton's 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole, one of the greatest adventure stories of the modern age.

In August 1914, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton boarded the Endurance became locked in an island of ice. Thus began the legendary ordeal of Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men. When their ship was finally crushed between two ice floes, they attempted a near-impossible journey over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization.

In Endurance, the definitive account of Ernest Shackleton's fateful trip, Alfred Lansing brilliantly narrates the harrowing and miraculous voyage that has defined heroism for the modern age.

First edition: here.]]> 282 Alfred Lansing Geoff 0 4.42 1959 Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
author: Alfred Lansing
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1959
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: currently-reading, books-i-was-recc-d
review:

]]> My Sister, the Serial Killer 38819868
My Sister, the Serial Killer is a blackly comic novel about how blood is thicker - and more difficult to get out of the carpet - than water...]]> 226 Oyinkan Braithwaite 0385544235 Geoff 0 DNF 3.64 2018 My Sister, the Serial Killer
author: Oyinkan Braithwaite
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves:
review:
DNF
]]> Gone Girl 19288043 What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?]]> 415 Gillian Flynn 0307588378 Geoff 5 books-i-was-recc-d
@pg 252
Lol... Amy... whatever girl.

@pg 253
Sigh... isn't it always communication...

@pg 266
It is a bit funny that "Diary Amy" is weird about food in the same way that "Real Amy" is, explicitly but she acts like that's not true.
]]> 4.22 2012 Gone Girl
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: books-i-was-recc-d
review:
There's Nick, there's Amy, and so help you god if you try to remember any secondary character's name as "the weird one with the name that's not a name" because it's most of them.

@pg 252
Lol... Amy... whatever girl.

@pg 253
Sigh... isn't it always communication...

@pg 266
It is a bit funny that "Diary Amy" is weird about food in the same way that "Real Amy" is, explicitly but she acts like that's not true.

]]> <![CDATA[Found: An Anthology of Found Footage Horror Stories]]> 61313693
Reader caution is advised. Advance readers of this anthology have reported nausea, feelings of anxiety, paranoia and hallucinations after reading the texts included.

Stories by: Holly Rae Garcia, Jeremy Hepler, Bev Vincent, Ally Wilkes, Clay McLoed Chapman, Nick Kolakowski, Tim McGregor, Alan Baxter, Angela Sylvaine, Josh Rountree, Georgia Cook, Ali Seay, Donna Lynch, Kurt Fawver, Robert Levy, Joe Butler, Fred Fischer IV, Aristo Couvaras.]]> 274 Andrew Cull Geoff 2 3.93 2022 Found: An Anthology of Found Footage Horror Stories
author: Andrew Cull
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves:
review:

]]> No Country for Old Men 23515727 No Country for Old Men is a triumph.]]> 309 Cormac McCarthy 0375706674 Geoff 0 to-read 4.25 2005 No Country for Old Men
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> We Used to Live Here 199798006
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it� (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).]]> 312 Marcus Kliewer 1982198788 Geoff 0 to-read 3.67 2024 We Used to Live Here
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> My Time to Stand 212262006
A victim of her mother’s Munchausen by proxy and child abuse survivor, Gypsy-Rose Blanchard’s unique and controversial case made headlines across the world.

Now, she’s finally free to start living her life on her terms—and to tell her own story as only she can.

Forced to use a wheelchair in public and endure a lifetime of faux illness, fraud, and exploitation, Gypsy was subjected not only to her mother’s medical, physical, and emotional abuse, but deprived of childhood milestones. Prevented from attending school or socializing, Gypsy’s formative years were defined by pain and isolation.

After serving 8 years in prison for the role she played in her mother Dee Dee’s murder, Gypsy is embracing her fresh start—and reminding all of us that it’s never too late.

In this revelatory, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful memoir, Gypsy shares the painful realities she grew up with and the details of her life that only she knows, including:
The abusive cycle that began with Dee Dee’s abuse by her father
Gypsy’s fear that continued unnecessary surgery would leave her truly disabled
How she coped with guilt and accepted responsibility for her mother’s death
Memories of her final days in prison
What she learned upon reviewing her own medical records for the first time
How it felt to finally see her family again as her authentic self

Featuring Blanchard family photos and new facts about Gypsy’s life that she previously kept private, My Time to Stand offers an unprecedented look at the real Gypsy-Rose Blanchard, proudly embarking on her ongoing journey to recovery and self-discovery.]]> 264 Gypsy-Rose Blanchard 1637745907 Geoff 0 to-read 3.40 2024 My Time to Stand
author: Gypsy-Rose Blanchard
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[No Human Involved: The Serial Murder of Black Women and Girls and the Deadly Cost of Police Indifference]]> 211960948 An urgent examination of the invisibility of Black women and girls as victims of targeted killings, and the lack of police intervention and media coverage.
When Black women and girls are targeted and murdered their cases are often categorized by police officers as “N.H.I.� � “No Humans Involved.� Dehumanized and invisible to the public eye, they are rarely seen as victims. In the United States, Black women are killed at a higher rate than any other group of women, but their victimhood is not covered by the media and their cases do not receive an adequate level of urgency. Utilizing intensive historical research of cases in cities such as Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angles, Cheryl Neely calls attention to serial cases of Black female murder victims and a lack of police action. Neely approaches each case and story with detailed care. Instead of focusing solely on the killings and the murderers, she highlights the lives of the women and girls and their communities that never stopped fighting for justice. With media neglect and police indifference, Neely argues that because law enforcement is less likely to conduct serious investigations into the disappearances and homicides of Black women, they are particularly vulnerable to become victims. Diving deep into the unseen and unheard, Neely uses personal interviews, court records, media reports, and analytical data to understand how and why Black women are disproportionately more likely to die from homicide in comparison to their white counterpoints. Sounding an urgent alarm, No Human Involved contends that it is time for Black women’s lives to matter not only to their families and communities, but especially to those commissioned to protect them.]]> 264 Cheryl L. Neely 0807004561 Geoff 0 to-read 4.49 2025 No Human Involved: The Serial Murder of Black Women and Girls and the Deadly Cost of Police Indifference
author: Cheryl L. Neely
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Black and Blue 5157
Now she is starting over in a city far from home, far from Bobby. And in this place she uses a name that isn't hers, and cradles her son in her arms, and tries to forget. For the woman who now calls herself Beth, every day is a chance to heal, to put together the pieces of her shattered self. And every day she waits for Bobby to catch up to her. Because Bobby always said he would never let her go. And despite the flawlessness of her escape, Fran Benedetto is certain of one thing: It is only a matter of time...]]> 288 Anna Quindlen 0385333137 Geoff 3 don-t-bother, fiction
@ finish

Who is this book even for? It wasn't bad, but it just came off as mean spirited to its own audience with the ending on top of everything else. Also, I was a little peeved that this book ran the stereotypical gamut to touch on important topics, like the holocaust and abortion interludes, and then for AIDs we get a quick "oh some junkie with AIDs"... Not saying she had to go into everything in depth with social grace, but that felt nasty to me, when combined with the fact that every gay person mentioned in this book is immediately insulted with no one dispelling it. The way Beth handles the racial thing I completely disagree with, both downplaying it and using the words flippantly and barely telling him not to use them himself (with him caring more about the situation), and then she gets punished as though she handled it correctly. Also, why the hell does she speculate at the end that her son is probably already out there being abusive to women but she would love him anyway? He's 16 for chrissakes????

I will warn that every single paragraph on every single page of this book is about her abusive relationship, if that sort of thing would truly bother you. It is not a good story for abused women freshly setting out on their journey of self-healing and recovery. I also don't appreciate her treating relocation services for abused women in just... a made up way.... and then critiquing them like they are just as bad as abusive men, even though it steps back on that. 4 stars because I like it more than books I've rated three stars, but saying "I really liked it" isn't correct. Is it a better, more collected book on abused women than others I've read? Yes, but I think it's datedness considering it was written in 1998.... I just don't think I'd recommend it to anyone who wasn't a bit lecherous.]]> 3.90 1998 Black and Blue
author: Anna Quindlen
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/09
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: don-t-bother, fiction
review:
I don't like a lot of the main character's opinions when they feel like the author shining through. It shows a lot of unhealthy opinions about tolerating bigotry and misguided opinions on child raising. Something about seeing this book recc'd to any woman who has suffered abuse then not seeing misogynistic rhetoric dispelled, and sometimes touted as a good thing, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

@ finish

Who is this book even for? It wasn't bad, but it just came off as mean spirited to its own audience with the ending on top of everything else. Also, I was a little peeved that this book ran the stereotypical gamut to touch on important topics, like the holocaust and abortion interludes, and then for AIDs we get a quick "oh some junkie with AIDs"... Not saying she had to go into everything in depth with social grace, but that felt nasty to me, when combined with the fact that every gay person mentioned in this book is immediately insulted with no one dispelling it. The way Beth handles the racial thing I completely disagree with, both downplaying it and using the words flippantly and barely telling him not to use them himself (with him caring more about the situation), and then she gets punished as though she handled it correctly. Also, why the hell does she speculate at the end that her son is probably already out there being abusive to women but she would love him anyway? He's 16 for chrissakes????

I will warn that every single paragraph on every single page of this book is about her abusive relationship, if that sort of thing would truly bother you. It is not a good story for abused women freshly setting out on their journey of self-healing and recovery. I also don't appreciate her treating relocation services for abused women in just... a made up way.... and then critiquing them like they are just as bad as abusive men, even though it steps back on that. 4 stars because I like it more than books I've rated three stars, but saying "I really liked it" isn't correct. Is it a better, more collected book on abused women than others I've read? Yes, but I think it's datedness considering it was written in 1998.... I just don't think I'd recommend it to anyone who wasn't a bit lecherous.
]]> I Who Have Never Known Men 60811826 Deep underground, forty women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.


As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the fortieth prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.


Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, and fled to Casablanca with her family during WWII. Informed by her background as a psychoanalyst and her youth in exile, I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic novel of female friendship and intimacy, and the lengths people will go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation. Back in print for the first time since 1997, Harpman’s modern classic is an important addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.]]> 184 Jacqueline Harpman 1945492600 Geoff 1 don-t-bother, yawn
@pg 25 WTF she said they have clothes? Even rudimentary. what's more rudimentary than a strap to hold your pad on or..? Whatever. Whatever. I'm dropping it. It's not important..

@pg 33 Ah. If this is the moral of the book, it's nice but I think I'm past that.

@pg 75 I think I'm too contrarian "We have sandals on." News to me!? "We were sewing earlier but now Greta is reinventing socks." But then the girls are making a hibachi like it's second nature... Weird things to remember and forget.

@pg 107 This part about the grammar is so French.

@pg 171
Honestly, I keep getting distracted like "How does the voice of this book not understand what it's actually like to have nothing. How can you pretend someone wouldn't have imagination or no one would want to make anything or make art. How is the creation of food they showed before and the desperation to create not translate in anyone ever behaving like a human." I'm just going to be disappointed if the moral of this book is as I suspect, which is "Even though I have never known men, it was worth it to know love. Even though I have never known X, it doesn't mean X has no value to me," because I don't like how she went about it.

@pg 193
Sad to report I like the ending less than the fake ending I made up in my head to get mad at.]]> 4.11 1995 I Who Have Never Known Men
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1995
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: don-t-bother, yawn
review:
@pg 4 - Girls didn't have underwear so they had to "tense their thigh muscles to hold a rag up..since they had nothing to hold them in place" for their period. I genuinely checked if this was written by a man when she wrote that. Did they ban vulvas in this universe? Maybe I'm a freak of nature. Also the reason some girls (especially older European women writing books) wanted to get their period was because of the mystique surrounding womanhood.. why would this girl who explicitly doesn't know about that want to have what she just sees as physical pain and imagine the smell... I'm not suspending my disbelief for that. I also like this catty bitch universe where even though they're trapped together there's bare minimum comradery, very French behavior honestly. These ladies would rather sit in naked miserable silence than basically anything else, I guess.

@pg 25 WTF she said they have clothes? Even rudimentary. what's more rudimentary than a strap to hold your pad on or..? Whatever. Whatever. I'm dropping it. It's not important..

@pg 33 Ah. If this is the moral of the book, it's nice but I think I'm past that.

@pg 75 I think I'm too contrarian "We have sandals on." News to me!? "We were sewing earlier but now Greta is reinventing socks." But then the girls are making a hibachi like it's second nature... Weird things to remember and forget.

@pg 107 This part about the grammar is so French.

@pg 171
Honestly, I keep getting distracted like "How does the voice of this book not understand what it's actually like to have nothing. How can you pretend someone wouldn't have imagination or no one would want to make anything or make art. How is the creation of food they showed before and the desperation to create not translate in anyone ever behaving like a human." I'm just going to be disappointed if the moral of this book is as I suspect, which is "Even though I have never known men, it was worth it to know love. Even though I have never known X, it doesn't mean X has no value to me," because I don't like how she went about it.

@pg 193
Sad to report I like the ending less than the fake ending I made up in my head to get mad at.
]]> A Scanner Darkly 216367
In this award-winning novel, friends can become enemies, good trips can turn terrifying, and cops and criminals are two sides of the same coin. Dick is at turns caustically funny and somberly contemplative, fashioning a novel that is as unnerving as it is enthralling.]]> 278 Philip K. Dick 0679736654 Geoff 0
@pg 31
McDonalds rant is trite by now. I know it was 1991, but it's giving Supersize Me.

@pg 38
I'm really asking myself if I'm annoyed with this book or just annoyed as a person rn. I'm so annoyed by the booby waitress boobying. Putting it aside to try to find something to read that doesn't piss me off.]]> 4.01 1977 A Scanner Darkly
author: Philip K. Dick
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1977
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: crimesolvin, fiction, unreliable-or-villainous-narrators, to-read
review:
Can I just say I don't really miss the era where making a satirical statement about how society views women involves making your world have fetishy gender roles and persecution of women.

@pg 31
McDonalds rant is trite by now. I know it was 1991, but it's giving Supersize Me.

@pg 38
I'm really asking myself if I'm annoyed with this book or just annoyed as a person rn. I'm so annoyed by the booby waitress boobying. Putting it aside to try to find something to read that doesn't piss me off.
]]> The Chronology of Water 9214995 The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch expertly moves the reader through issues of gender, sexuality, violence, and the family from the point of view of a lifelong swimmer turned artist. In writing that explores the nature of memoir itself, her story traces the effect of extreme grief on a young woman's developing sexuality that some define as untraditional because of her attraction to both men and women. Her emergence as a writer evolves at the same time and takes the narrator on a journey of addiction, self-destruction, and ultimately survival that finally comes in the shape of love and motherhood.]]> 310 Lidia Yuknavitch 0979018838 Geoff 0 to-read, to-read-shortlist 4.24 2011 The Chronology of Water
author: Lidia Yuknavitch
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read, to-read-shortlist
review:

]]> Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp 467690 320 Stephanie Klein 0060843292 Geoff 1 nonfiction
I have struggled with this book so far. The narrator is abrasive and unlikeable... or at least an unlikeable retelling of her childhood self. Sometimes I don't understand why she wrote a book about weight when she doesn't want to have very meaningful conversations about weight. I can appreciate the thought process of show instead of tell.. It just feels a little shallow sometimes. I was a bit exasperated earlier in the camp experience because it was cutting away every couple of paragraphs of camp life to flashback to family stories it reminded her of. It was very frequent, but we haven't had a flashback in quite a while now. Which I appreciate, but it feels unbalanced.
So far, I feel like this book is a good lesson in extending empathy to people who aren't the "perfect victim" on top of how little her being fat seemed to ultimately affect the opportunities she was offered (like relationships, etc.) but it affects almost every aspect of how these opportunities go and how "fat people" are treated trying to live day-to-day. How it did and didn't affect her relationship with other aspects of her life.
As far as Steph.. I don't know. She's not trying to be likeable; she's trying to be relatable. I'm not relating, and I'm not liking...

@pg 293
She does some really bad things being a counsellor at camp and owns up to it and becomes almost likeable... Now she just said she likes to be submissive sexually and otherwise, is going to be integral to her adult weight loss journey. Please... I wish it wasn't so..

@ finish
I appreciate her candidness. This was all over the place. I don't think I enjoyed it. It's another perspective.]]> 3.44 2008 Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp
author: Stephanie Klein
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: nonfiction
review:
@pg 229

I have struggled with this book so far. The narrator is abrasive and unlikeable... or at least an unlikeable retelling of her childhood self. Sometimes I don't understand why she wrote a book about weight when she doesn't want to have very meaningful conversations about weight. I can appreciate the thought process of show instead of tell.. It just feels a little shallow sometimes. I was a bit exasperated earlier in the camp experience because it was cutting away every couple of paragraphs of camp life to flashback to family stories it reminded her of. It was very frequent, but we haven't had a flashback in quite a while now. Which I appreciate, but it feels unbalanced.
So far, I feel like this book is a good lesson in extending empathy to people who aren't the "perfect victim" on top of how little her being fat seemed to ultimately affect the opportunities she was offered (like relationships, etc.) but it affects almost every aspect of how these opportunities go and how "fat people" are treated trying to live day-to-day. How it did and didn't affect her relationship with other aspects of her life.
As far as Steph.. I don't know. She's not trying to be likeable; she's trying to be relatable. I'm not relating, and I'm not liking...

@pg 293
She does some really bad things being a counsellor at camp and owns up to it and becomes almost likeable... Now she just said she likes to be submissive sexually and otherwise, is going to be integral to her adult weight loss journey. Please... I wish it wasn't so..

@ finish
I appreciate her candidness. This was all over the place. I don't think I enjoyed it. It's another perspective.
]]> Color Blind: A Memoir 7164331 Nursery World. A response soon came from a woman in rural Sussex, and Precious, three months old, was handed off in a basket.

Nan, Precious's new foster mother, was sixty years old and white, and prided herself on being "color blind." But she might also have been shortsighted about the difficulties her black daughter would encounter. At her all-white school, Precious was taunted and ostracized, and Nan struggled to understand her daughter's troubles. Precious's birth mother would visit occasionally, providing glimpses of a different world, but eventually turned critical of a daughter who had become "too white."

Retreating into her imagination, Precious forged her own identity. She emerged from the disillusionment and self-destructiveness of her teen years with a fierce resolve not to let circumstance, class, or color determine her future. Precious Williams tells her extraordinary story in Color Blind, brightly, bravely grappling with issues of identity, motherhood, and race.]]> 256 Precious Williams 159691338X Geoff 3 nonfiction, sex-within 3.97 2010 Color Blind: A Memoir
author: Precious Williams
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/03
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: nonfiction, sex-within
review:
This is a very sympathetic novel and it really gives powerful insight on her foster situation and some of the family dynamics that African people face when relocated to Europe. The author does a wonderful job during the young age part of this book in the sense that.. their hindsight reflections are very empathetic and understand why certain actions are hurtful to children. It is just confusing to me that the same person who wrote that part of the book shares the views she gives on her daughter in the end of the book. While it's fine to acknowledge that despite knowing better you behave a certain way, repeating patterns like she points out. I just thought the language in the closing parts of the book felt really indifferent towards her causing her daughter's pain, even though it acknowledged she was causing it and wanted her daughter to like her. It felt for a moment like an oddly intimate plea to her daughter to explain her behavior, which I don't know how I feel about or really understand why she is writing it when it seems like she's doing it instead of just talking to her (or even writing to her!). It felt like shying away from one of the main points, how this sort of culture fractures African-descended families, because she was embarrassed.. which is odd when you compare the rest of the book's content.
]]> Drunk Mom 15799161
Her trips to liquor stores are in-and-out missions. Perhaps she's being paranoid, but she thinks people tend to notice the stroller. Walking home, she stays behind buildings, in alleyways, taking discreet sips from a bottle she's stored in the diaper bag. She know she's become a a mother who drinks; a mother who endangers her child. She drinks to forget this. And then the trouble really starts.

Jowita Bydlowska's memoir of her relapse into addiction is an extraordinary achievement. The writing is raw and immediate. It places you in the moment--saddened, appalled, nerve-wracked, but never able to look away or stop turning the pages. With brutal honesty, Bydlowska takes us through the binges and blackouts, the self-deception and less successful attempts to deceive others, the humiliations and extraordinary risk-taking. She shines a light on the endless hunger of wanting just one more drink, and one more again, while dealing with motherhood, anxiety, depression--and rehab.

Her struggle to regain her sobriety is recorded in the same unsentimental, unsparing, sometimes grimly comic way. But the happy outcome is evidenced by the existence of this brilliant she has lived to tell the tale.]]> 304 Jowita Bydlowska 0385677804 Geoff 4 nonfiction Also wait, just went to this author's profile.. I can honestly say I have never seen a goodreads author dig through their reviews to complain on bad comments, LOL! And the most recent one is like "I've only been brought to comment on reviews twice," Jowita.. we can see your comment history! Petty petty...

@finish
I thought it was a good book, I like her narrative style.]]> 3.69 2013 Drunk Mom
author: Jowita Bydlowska
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/26
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: nonfiction
review:
@pg 22 ... please god don't have the kingdom metaphor drag out for more pages I can't take it anymore...
Also wait, just went to this author's profile.. I can honestly say I have never seen a goodreads author dig through their reviews to complain on bad comments, LOL! And the most recent one is like "I've only been brought to comment on reviews twice," Jowita.. we can see your comment history! Petty petty...

@finish
I thought it was a good book, I like her narrative style.
]]> <![CDATA[Strung Out: One Last Hit and Other Lies That Nearly Killed Me]]> 44492396 � New York Times Book Review

“This vital memoir will change how we look at the opioid crisis and how the media talks about it. A deeply moving and emotional read, STRUNG OUT challenges our preconceived ideas of what addiction looks like.�
—Stephanie Land, New York Times bestselling author of Maid

In this deeply personal and illuminating memoir about her fifteen-year struggle with heroin, Khar sheds profound light on the opioid crisis and gives a voice to the over two million people in America currently battling with this addiction.

Growing up in LA, Erin Khar hid behind a picture-perfect childhood filled with excellent grades, a popular group of friends and horseback riding. After first experimenting with her grandmother’s expired painkillers, Khar started using heroin when she was thirteen. The drug allowed her to escape from pressures to be perfect and suppress all the heavy feelings she couldn’t understand.

This fiercely honest memoir explores how heroin shaped every aspect of her life for the next fifteen years and details the various lies she told herself, and others, about her drug use. With enormous heart and wisdom, she shows how the shame and stigma surrounding addiction, which fuels denial and deceit, is so often what keeps addicts from getting help. There is no one path to recovery, and for Khar, it was in motherhood that she found the inner strength and self-forgiveness to quit heroin and fight for her life.

Strung Out is a life-affirming story of resilience while also a gripping investigation into the psychology of addiction and why people turn to opioids in the first place.]]> 304 Erin Khar 0778309738 Geoff 3 nonfiction, sex-within
I like a lot of memoirs that people say are just a parade of bad things, and I don't mind some soap opera, and I'm really trying to like this. I don't like it very much. I know things don't always have to be relatable to enjoy them, but something about how this is written is less like a memoir and more like some random person over-sharing to you, but only parts they think make them have mystique. I also have an aversion to equestrians. These things that happen (all by the age of 14 so far) are often irritating because she shares that they happened but no satisfying motivation or explanation for why she's there in the first place. Something is lost in translation. We go from finding out she vaguely had an older boyfriend, to she liked his best friend, to trouble with the best friend, to the boy dying, to by the way she's 14 don't forget.. in like 3 pages. Why are we running?

@pg 97
To paraphrase: 'I heard the voice of my ex who I am heartbroken by his death in the apartment. I begged him to help me with my current relationship fling.' .............ERIN!

@pg 283
I really wish she would tell me personally less about her frustrating romantic obsessions, but I'm sure it's helping someone else. "I met this guy and I wanted to be in a relationship with him. So I broke up with the other guys I was seeing casually that I haven't mentioned to this point 6 months into liking this guy. Then he didn't want to be with me and I exploded and threatened to kill myself." ...Only so many times I can hear this in one book. The self-awareness about how nightmarish of a personality she has/d is not... helping make it less irritating. She comes off as incredibly ingenuine because she cycles through obsessions with new men every chapter and I can't even keep their names straight. I know this is a part of her issue and why she mentions it, but I hate it...

@pg 285
No shade to her specifically because it happens most memoirs it seems.. just a friendly reminder your memoir does NOT need a chapter dedicated to you getting a passion for writing and deciding to write a memoir.]]> 3.92 2020 Strung Out: One Last Hit and Other Lies That Nearly Killed Me
author: Erin Khar
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: nonfiction, sex-within
review:
@pg 50

I like a lot of memoirs that people say are just a parade of bad things, and I don't mind some soap opera, and I'm really trying to like this. I don't like it very much. I know things don't always have to be relatable to enjoy them, but something about how this is written is less like a memoir and more like some random person over-sharing to you, but only parts they think make them have mystique. I also have an aversion to equestrians. These things that happen (all by the age of 14 so far) are often irritating because she shares that they happened but no satisfying motivation or explanation for why she's there in the first place. Something is lost in translation. We go from finding out she vaguely had an older boyfriend, to she liked his best friend, to trouble with the best friend, to the boy dying, to by the way she's 14 don't forget.. in like 3 pages. Why are we running?

@pg 97
To paraphrase: 'I heard the voice of my ex who I am heartbroken by his death in the apartment. I begged him to help me with my current relationship fling.' .............ERIN!

@pg 283
I really wish she would tell me personally less about her frustrating romantic obsessions, but I'm sure it's helping someone else. "I met this guy and I wanted to be in a relationship with him. So I broke up with the other guys I was seeing casually that I haven't mentioned to this point 6 months into liking this guy. Then he didn't want to be with me and I exploded and threatened to kill myself." ...Only so many times I can hear this in one book. The self-awareness about how nightmarish of a personality she has/d is not... helping make it less irritating. She comes off as incredibly ingenuine because she cycles through obsessions with new men every chapter and I can't even keep their names straight. I know this is a part of her issue and why she mentions it, but I hate it...

@pg 285
No shade to her specifically because it happens most memoirs it seems.. just a friendly reminder your memoir does NOT need a chapter dedicated to you getting a passion for writing and deciding to write a memoir.
]]> <![CDATA[The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales]]> 407429 A revisionist storyteller provides his mad, hilarious versions of children's favorite tales in this unique and riotous collection.

A long time ago, people used to tell magical stories of wonder and enchantment. Those stories were called Fairy Tales.

Those stories are not in this book. The stories in this book are Fairly Stupid Tales.

I mean, what else would you call a story like "Goldilocks and the Three Elephants"? This girl walking through the woods smells Peanut Porridge Cooking. She decides to break into the Elephants' house, eat the porridge, sit in the chairs, and sleep in the beds. But when she gets in the house she can't climb up on Baby Elephant's chair because it's much too big. And she can't climb on Papa Elephant's chair because it's much much too big. So she goes home. The End.

And if you don't think that's fairly stupid, you should read "Little Red Riding Shorts" or maybe "The Stinky Cheese Man."

In fact, you should definitely go read the stories now, because the rest of this description just kind of goes on and on and doesn't really say anything. I stuck it here so it would fill up the page and make it look like I really knew what I was talking about. So stop now. I mean it. Quit reading this. Open the book. If you read this last sentence, it won't tell you anything.

Signed,
Jack (Narrator)
Up the Hill
Fairy Tale Forest
1992

Story List:
- Chicken Licken
- The Princess and the Bowling Ball
- The Really Ugly Duckling
- The Other Frog Prince
- Little Red Running Shorts
- Jack's Bean Problem (including Giant Story / Jack's Story)
- Cinderummpelstiltskin (Or The Girl Who Really Blew It)
- The Tortoise and the Hair
- The Stinky Cheese Man

SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: It has been determined that these tales are fairly stupid and probably dangerous to your health.

Edition MSRP: $17âąâą US (ISBN 0-670-84487-X)]]> 52 Jon Scieszka 067084487X Geoff 4 books-i-was-recc-d 4.20 1992 The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
author: Jon Scieszka
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: books-i-was-recc-d
review:

]]> Dirtbag Queen 212924450 “Because she was my mother, the death of zaftig good-time gal Renay Corren is newsworthy to me, and I treat it with the same respect and reverence she had for, well, nothing. A more disrespectful, trash talking woman was not to be found.�
ĚýĚý
ĚýSo began Andy Corren's unforgettable obituary for his mother, Renay Mandel Corren, in her hometown paper The Fayetteville Observer, a tribute that went on to touch the hearts of millions around the globe. In his brief telling of the life and legend that was Renay, a “loud, filthy‑minded (and filthy‑mouthed) Jewish lady redneck who birthed six kids—some of whom she even knew,â€� Andy captured only a slice of his loving and fabulously unconventional mother.
ĚýĚý His obituary for Renay was just the tip of the iceberg. In this uproariously funny, deeply moving family portrait, readers meet the rest of his absurd his brothers, affectionately nicknamed Asshole (whose terrible attitude permeates every room he enters), Twin (held back a year and constantly mistaken for Andy despite the fact that they look nothing alike), and Rabbi (the only one who had a Bar Mitzvah); his one-eyed pirate queen of a sister, Cathy Sue (a teen bride who lost an eye to a Pepsi bottle); and then there’s the mysterious Bonus, who Andy isn’t aware of until later in life since this mysterious oldest brother grew up at the Green Valley School for Emotionally Disturbed and Delinquent Children.
ĚýA story of love and forgiveness, as well as a celebration of a woman who “didn't cook, didn't clean, and was lousy with moneyâ€� but was “great at dyeing her red roots, weekly manicures, filthy jokes, pier fishing, rolling joints and buying dirty magazines," Dirtbag Queen is an entertaining and poignant portrayal of the complex and heartfelt humanity that unites us all—especially family.]]> 288 Andy Corren 1538742225 Geoff 0 to-read 3.74 2025 Dirtbag Queen
author: Andy Corren
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales]]> 32559
The work includes a new introduction by Stephen Marlowe, author of "The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus" and "The Lighthouse at the End of the World."

Besides the five stories already mentioned, it also contains: "The Balloon-Hoax", "Ms. Found in a Bottle", "A Descent into a Maelstrom", "The Black Cat", "The Pit and the Pendulum", The Assignation", "Diddling", "The Man That Was Used Up", and the novel, "Narrative of A. Gordon Pym". These may vary with different editions.

The Signet Classic Edition of "The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales" has over 250,000 copies in print!

Librarian's note: this is a collection by the author of short stories, and one novel, Entries for each of them on their own can be found elsewhere on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ, including the specific entry for the story, "The Fall of the House of Usher".]]> 400 Edgar Allan Poe 0451526759 Geoff 0 to-read
The Balloon-Hoax: I'm familiar with the meta-story behind this short story. It's not something that really interests me at all for this day and age. Interesting bit of history-trolling from Poe, though. I've read a fair bit during my wikipedia crawl through The List of Hoaxes. Skimmed and skipped. DNF

Ms. Found in a Bottle: ]]> 4.18 1960 The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1960
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:
Rating by Story

The Balloon-Hoax: I'm familiar with the meta-story behind this short story. It's not something that really interests me at all for this day and age. Interesting bit of history-trolling from Poe, though. I've read a fair bit during my wikipedia crawl through The List of Hoaxes. Skimmed and skipped. DNF

Ms. Found in a Bottle:
]]> The Haunting of Hill House 89717 182 Shirley Jackson 0143039989 Geoff 0 currently-reading
I think this might be my second lukewarm reaction to a Shirley Jackson that I really wanted to rave about. The prose feels too off/dated/gothic in a way I just personally don't seem to like very much. I have put this aside for a couple months and it may have contributed to me being so behind on my reading goal this year... yikes! I'm also a bit surprised to see I'm halfway through the story... ]]> 3.85 1959 The Haunting of Hill House
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1959
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:
@pg 98

I think this might be my second lukewarm reaction to a Shirley Jackson that I really wanted to rave about. The prose feels too off/dated/gothic in a way I just personally don't seem to like very much. I have put this aside for a couple months and it may have contributed to me being so behind on my reading goal this year... yikes! I'm also a bit surprised to see I'm halfway through the story...
]]> <![CDATA[Norco '80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History]]> 43192297 A true crime account of one of the most violent bank heists in US history.

Norco �80 tells the story of how five heavily-armed young men—led by an apocalyptic born-again Christian—attempted a bank robbery that turned into one of the most violent criminal events in U.S. history, forever changing the face of American law enforcement. Part action thriller and part courtroom drama, Norco �80 transports the reader back to the Southern California of the 1970s, an era of predatory evangelical gurus, doomsday predictions, megachurches, and soaring crime rates, with the threat of nuclear obliteration looming over it all.

A group of landscapers transforms into a murderous gang of bank robbers armed to the teeth with military-grade weapons. Their desperate getaway turned the surrounding towns into war zones. When it was over, three were dead and close to twenty wounded; a police helicopter was forced down from the sky, and thirty-two police vehicles were destroyed by thousands of rounds of ammo. The resulting trials shook the community to the core, raising many issues that continue to plague society today: from racism and the epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder within law enforcement to religious extremism and the militarization of local police forces.]]> 400 Peter Houlahan 1640092129 Geoff 0 to-read 3.88 2019 Norco '80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History
author: Peter Houlahan
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> I'm Glad My Mom Died 59364173
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,� eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?� She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!�), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.]]> 320 Jennette McCurdy Geoff 5 nonfiction 4.45 2022 I'm Glad My Mom Died
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves: nonfiction
review:

]]> Sundial 57693183 Sundial is a new, twisty psychological horror novel from Catriona Ward, internationally bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street.

You can't escape what's in your blood...

All Rob wanted was a normal life. She almost got it, too: a husband, two kids, a nice house in the suburbs. But Rob fears for her oldest daughter, Callie, who collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends. Rob sees a darkness in Callie, one that reminds her too much of the family she left behind. She decides to take Callie back to her childhood home, to Sundial, deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice.

Callie is worried about her mother. Rob has begun to look at her strangely, and speaks of past secrets. And Callie fears that only one of them will leave Sundial alive�

The mother and daughter embark on a dark, desert journey to the past in the hopes of redeeming their future.]]> 292 Catriona Ward 1250812682 Geoff 0 to-read 3.77 2022 Sundial
author: Catriona Ward
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Briardark (Briardark, #1) 62896564 Survival and cosmic horror collide in this new series, perfect for fans of LOST and House of Leaves.

For Dr. Siena Dupont and her ambitious team, the Alpenglow glacier expedition is a career-defining opportunity. But thirty miles into the desolate Deadswitch Wilderness, they discover a missing hiker dangling from a tree, and their satellite phone fails to call out.

Then the body vanishes without a trace.

The disappearance isn’t the only chilling anomaly. Siena’s map no longer aligns with the trail. The glacier they were supposed to study has inexplicably melted. Strange foliage overruns the mountainside, and a tunnel within a tree hollow lures Siena to a hidden cabin, and a stranger with a sinister message�

Holden Sharpe’s IT job offers little distraction from his wasted potential until he stumbles upon a decommissioned hard drive and an old audio file. Trapped on a mountain, Dr. Siena Dupont recounts an expedition in chaos and the bloody death of a colleague.

Entranced by the mystery, Holden searches for answers to Siena’s fate. But he is unprepared for the truth that will draw him to the outskirts of Deadswitch Wilderness—a place teeming with unfathomable nightmares and impossibilities.]]> 362 S.A. Harian Geoff 0 to-read 3.67 2023 Briardark (Briardark, #1)
author: S.A. Harian
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I'm Just Happy to Be Here: A Memoir of Renegade Mothering]]> 36204320
"By turns painful and funny... A searingly candid memoir." -- Kirkus

"Far from your cookie-cutter story of addiction . . . [ I'm Just Happy to Be Here ] describes Hanchett's journey to recovery and sobriety in imperfect and unconventional ways." -- Bustle

In this unflinching and wickedly funny memoir, Janelle Hanchett tells the story of finding her way home. And then, actually staying there. Drawing us into the wild, heartbreaking mind of the addict, Hanchett carries us from motherhood at 21 with a man she'd known three months to cubicles and whiskey-laden domesticity, from judging meth addicts in rehab to therapists who "seem to pull diagnoses out of large, expensive hats." With warmth, wit, and searing B.S. detectors turned mostly toward herself, Hanchett invites us to laugh when we probably shouldn't and to rejoice at the unconventional redemption she finds in desperation and in a misfit mentor who forces her to see the truth of herself.

A story of ego and forced humility, of fierce honesty and jagged love, of the kind of failure that forces us to re-create our lives, Hanchett writes with rare candor, scorching the "sanctity of motherhood," and leaving beauty in the ashes.]]> 320 Janelle Hanchett 0316503770 Geoff 0 to-read 4.08 2018 I'm Just Happy to Be Here: A Memoir of Renegade Mothering
author: Janelle Hanchett
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Ararat (Ben Walker, #1) 29939052 305 Christopher Golden 1250117054 Geoff 0 to-read 3.39 2017 Ararat (Ben Walker, #1)
author: Christopher Golden
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Among the Living 128890128 From the New York Times bestseller and author of Netflix’s The Silence comes a terrifying horror novel set in a melting Arctic landscape. Something deadly has lain dormant for thousands of years, but now the permafrost is giving up its secrets�

Estranged friends Dean and Bethan meet after five years apart when they are drawn to a network of caves on a remote Arctic island. Bethan and her friends are environmental activists, determined to protect the land. But Dean’s group's exploitation of rare earth minerals deep in the caves unleashes an horrific contagion that has rested frozen and undisturbed for many millennia. Fleeing the terrors emerging from the caves, Dean and Bethan and their rival teams undertake a perilous journey on foot across an unpredictable and volatile landscape. The ex-friends must learn to work together again if they’re to survive... and more importantly, stop the horror from spreading to the wider world.

A propulsive horror thriller––fast-moving, frightening, and shockingly relevant—this adventure will grip you until the final terrifying page.]]> 304 Tim Lebbon Geoff 0 to-read 3.35 2024 Among the Living
author: Tim Lebbon
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Home Is Where the Bodies Are 194020321
While going through their parents' belongings, the siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories. However, the nostalgia is cut short when one of the VHS tapes reveals a night back in 1999 that none of them have any recollection of. On screen, their father appears covered in blood. What follows is a dead body and a pact between their parents to get rid of it, before the video abruptly ends.

Beth, Nicole, and Michael must now decide whether to leave the past in the past or uncover the dark secret their mother took to her grave.]]> 256 Jeneva Rose Geoff 0 to-read 3.77 2024 Home Is Where the Bodies Are
author: Jeneva Rose
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Thin Air: A Ghost Story 28335600
Kangchenjunga. Third highest peak on earth. Greatest killer of them all.

Five Englishmen set off from Darjeeling, determined to tackle the sacred summit. But courage can only take them so far - and the mountain is not their only foe.

As mountain sickness and the horrors of extreme altitude set in, the past refuses to stay buried. And sometimes, the truth won't set you free. .]]> 223 Michelle Paver 1409163342 Geoff 0 to-read 3.80 2016 Thin Air: A Ghost Story
author: Michelle Paver
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dead End Tunnel 213487796
Now, as an adult, Maverick is haunted by a sinister force that compels him to return to his old neighborhood, a place shadowed by secrets, deceit, and an unsettling sense of death. Drawn back against his better judgment, he must face the dark forces that have lurked in waiting, eager for his return. As Maverick confronts the shadows of his past, he finds himself entangled in a web of mystery that threatens not only his sanity but his very survival.

This harrowing tale of memory, fear, and the power of the unseen delves deep into the heart of a nightmare that refuses to be forgotten, beckoning Maverick to resolve the terrifying mystery that has haunted him for decades.]]> 194 Nick Roberts Geoff 0 to-read 4.11 Dead End Tunnel
author: Nick Roberts
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The House That Horror Built 196848553 A single mother working in the gothic mansion of a reclusive horror director stumbles upon terrifying secrets.

Harry Adams loves horror movies,Ěýso it’s no coincidenceĚýthat she accepted a job cleaning house for horror-movie director Javier Castillo. His forbidding gray-stoneĚýChicagoĚýmansion,ĚýBright Horses, is filled from top to bottom with terrifying props and costumes as well as glittering awards from his career making movies that thrilled audiences—until family tragedy and scandal forced him to vanish from the industry.

Javier values discretion, and Harry always tries to keep the house immaculate, her head down, and her job safe. Then she hears noises from behind a locked door, noises that sound remarkably like a human voice calling for help. Harry knows not asking questions is a vital part of keeping her job, but she soon discovers that the house may be home to secrets she can’t ignore.]]> 317 Christina Henry 0593638212 Geoff 0 to-read 3.19 2024 The House That Horror Built
author: Christina Henry
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Horror Movie 200101541 A chilling twist on the “cursed filmâ€� genre from the bestselling author ofĚýThe Pallbearers Club ˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýThe Cabin at the End of the World.

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick.

The weird part?ĚýOnly three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot.

The man who played “The Thin Kid� is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions � demons of the past be damned.

But at what cost?Ěý

Horror Movie is an obsessive, psychologically chilling, and suspenseful twist on the “cursed film� that breathlessly builds to an unforgettable, mind-bending conclusion.]]> 277 Paul Tremblay 0063070014 Geoff 0 to-read 3.31 2024 Horror Movie
author: Paul Tremblay
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida]]> 199797807
On the face of it, Denise Williams and Brian Winchester had the perfect, quintessentially Southern lives. The two were hardworking devout Baptists and together, with their respective spouses, formed a tight-knit friendship that seemed unbreakable. That is, until December 16, 2000, when Denise’s husband Mike disappeared while duck hunting on Lake Seminole on the border of Georgia and Florida.

After no body was found, it was assumed that he had drowned and was consumed by alligators in a tragic accident. But things took an unexpected turn when Brian divorced his wife and married Denise. Their surprising marriage was far from happy and in 2018, he confessed to police he killed Mike with Denise’s help nearly two decades earlier.

Now, the full, shocking story is revealed by Mikita Brottman, acclaimed true crime writer and “one of today’s finest practitioners of nonfiction� ( The New York Times Book Review ). With tenacious investigating and clear-eyed prose, she exposes the dark underbelly of far-right conservative Christianity and how it led Brian to choose murder over adultery. A fascinating and in-depth page-turner, Guilty Creatures is destined to become an instant classic in the true crime genre.]]> 288 Mikita Brottman 166802053X Geoff 0 to-read 3.38 2024 Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida
author: Mikita Brottman
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Incidents Around the House 199757490 A chilling horror novel about a haunting told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled family is targeted by an entity she calls “Other Mommy,� from the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box
Ěý
To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’sĚýMommy,ĚýDaddo,Ěýand Grandma Ruth.ĚýBut there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?”ĚýĚ�
Ěý
When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the same question, over and over . . . Bela understands that unless she says yes, soon her family must pay.Ěý
Ěý
Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe but other incidents show cracks in her parents' marriage. The safety Bela relies on is on the brink of unraveling.ĚýĚý
Ěý
But Other Mommy needs an answer.Ěý
Ěý
Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror told by the child Bela. A story about a family as haunted as their home.]]> 367 Josh Malerman 0593723120 Geoff 0 to-read 3.61 2024 Incidents Around the House
author: Josh Malerman
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The God of the Woods 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Geoff 0 to-read 4.15 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things]]> 23848559
In Furiously Happy, a humor memoir tinged with just enough tragedy and pathos to make it worthwhile, Jenny Lawson examines her own experience with severe depression and a host of other conditions, and explains how it has led her to live life to the fullest:

"I've often thought that people with severe depression have developed such a well for experiencing extreme emotion that they might be able to experience extreme joy in a way that â€normal people' also might never understand. And that's what Furiously Happy is all about."

Jenny’s readings are standing room only, with fans lining up to have Jenny sign their bottles of Xanax or Prozac as often as they are to have her sign their books. Furiously Happy appeals to Jenny's core fan base but also transcends it. There are so many people out there struggling with depression and mental illness, either themselves or someone in their family—and in Furiously Happy they will find a member of their tribe offering up an uplifting message (via a taxidermied roadkill raccoon). Let's Pretend This Never Happened ostensibly was about embracing your own weirdness, but deep down it was about family. Furiously Happy is about depression and mental illness, but deep down it's about joy—and who doesn't want a bit more of that?]]> 329 Jenny Lawson 1250077001 Geoff 0 to-read 3.88 2015 Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things
author: Jenny Lawson
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Glass Castle 7445 THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing--a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.]]> 288 Jeannette Walls 074324754X Geoff 0 to-read 4.32 2005 The Glass Castle
author: Jeannette Walls
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Drift 58042331
Hannah awakens to carnage, all mangled metal and shattered glass. Evacuated from a secluded boarding school during a snowstorm, her coach careered off the road, trapping her with a handful of survivors.

Meg awakens to a gentle rocking. She's in a cable car stranded high above snowy mountains, with five strangers and no memory of how they got on board.

Carter is gazing out of the window of an isolated ski chalet that he and his companions call home. As their generator begins to waver in the storm, the threat of something lurking in the chalet's depths looms larger.

Outside, the storm rages. Inside each group, a killer lurks.

But who?

And will anyone make it out alive? . . .]]> 389 C.J. Tudor 1405948264 Geoff 0 to-read 3.83 2023 The Drift
author: C.J. Tudor
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Cabal 103035 358 Clive Barker 0743417321 Geoff 0 to-read 3.94 1988 Cabal
author: Clive Barker
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Carmilla 48037
But as Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day� Pre-dating Dracula by twenty-six years, Carmilla is the original vampire story, steeped in sexual tension and gothic romance.]]> 108 J. Sheridan Le Fanu 0809510839 Geoff 0 to-read 3.88 1872 Carmilla
author: J. Sheridan Le Fanu
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1872
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)]]> 15839976 "I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."

"I live for you," I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.]]> 382 Pierce Brown 0345539788 Geoff 0 to-read 4.26 2014 Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[But Enough About Me: A Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous]]> 128582 New Jersey in the 1980s had everything Jancee Dunn wanted: trips down the shore, Bruce Springsteen, a tantalizing array of malls. To music lover Jancee, New York City was a foreign country. So it was with bleak expectations that she submitted her résumé to Rolling Stone magazine. And before she knew it, she was backstage and behind the scenes with the most famous people in the world—hiking in Canada with Brad Pitt, snacking on Velveeta with Dolly Parton, dancing drunkenly onstage with the Beastie Boys—trading her good-girl suburban past for late nights, hipster guys, and the booze-soaked rock 'n' roll life.

Riotously funny and tremendously touching, But Enough About Me is the amazing true story of an outsider who couldn't quite bring herself to become an insider.

]]> 288 Jancee Dunn 0060843640 Geoff 0 to-read 3.81 2006 But Enough About Me: A Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous
author: Jancee Dunn
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Beach 607639
The Khao San Road, Bangkok -- first stop for the hordes of rootless young Westerners traveling in Southeast Asia. On Richard's first night there, in a low-budget guest house, a fellow traveller slashes his wrists, bequeathing to Richard a meticulously drawn map to "the Beach."

The Beach, as Richard has come to learn, is the subject of a legend among young travellers in Asia: a lagoon hidden from the sea, with white sand and coral gardens, freshwater falls surrounded by jungle, plants untouched for a thousand years. There, it is rumoured, a carefully selected international few have settled in a communal Eden.

Haunted by the figure of Mr. Duck -- the name by which the Thai police have identified the dead man -- and his own obsession with Vietnam movies, Richard sets off with a young French couple to an island hidden away in an archipelago forbidden to tourists. They discover the Beach, and it is as beautiful and idyllic as it is reputed to be. Yet over time it becomes clear that Beach culture, as Richard calls it, has troubling, even deadly, undercurrents.

Spellbinding and hallucinogenic, The Beach by Alex Garland -- both a national bestseller and his debut -- is a highly accomplished and suspenseful novel that fixates on a generation in their twenties, who, burdened with the legacy of the preceding generation and saturated by popular culture, long for an unruined landscape, but find it difficult to experience the world first hand.]]> 436 Alex Garland 1573226521 Geoff 4 fiction 3.97 1996 The Beach
author: Alex Garland
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/05
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: fiction
review:
They need to take the movie out back and shoot it like the stupid animal it is.
]]> <![CDATA[There Is No Ethan: How Three Women Caught America's Biggest Catfish]]> 201294595 Part memoir, part explosive window into the mind of a catfisher, a thrilling personal account of three women coming face-to-face with an internet predator and teaming up to expose them

In 2011 three successful and highly educated women fell head over heels for the brilliant and charming Ethan Schuman. Unbeknownst to the others, each exchanged countless messages with Ethan, staying up late into the evenings to deepen their connections with this fascinating man. His detailed excuses about broken webcams and complicated international calling plans seemed believable, as did last-minute trip cancellations. After all, why would he lie? Ethan wasn't after money—he never convinced his marks to shell out thousands of dollars for some imagined crisis. Rather, he ensnared these women in a web of intense emotional intimacy.

After the trio independently began to question inconsistencies in their new flame's stories, they managed to find one another and uncover a greater deception than they could have ever imagined. As Anna Akbari and the women untangled their catfish’s web, they found other victims and realized that without a proper crime, there was no legal reason for “Ethan� to ever stop.

There is No Ethan catalogues Akbari's experience as both victim and observer. By looking at the bigger picture—a world where technology mediates our relationships; where words and images are easily manipulated; and where truth, reality, and identity have become slippery terms—Akbari provides an explanation for why these stories matter.]]> 304 Anna Akbari 1538742195 Geoff 0 to-read 3.57 2024 There Is No Ethan: How Three Women Caught America's Biggest Catfish
author: Anna Akbari
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Last Days 28586344
Nominated for the Shirley Jackson award and winner of the ALA/RUSA Best Horror novel, Brian Evenson’s Last Days is an intense, profoundly unsettling down-the-rabbit-hole detective noir. Kline is a former detective who’s cool head in the face of a brutal amputation makes him the perfect candidate to infiltrate a dark cult that believes amputation brings one closer to God. Kline is tasked with finding the cult leader’s killer. But to get to the truth, Kline must lose himself—literally—one body part at a time.

Last Days was first published in 2003 as a limited edition novella titled The Brotherhood of Mutilation. Its success led Evenson to expand the story into a full-length novel. In doing so, he has created a work that’s disturbing, deeply satisfying, and completely original.]]> 200 Brian Evenson 1566894247 Geoff 0 to-read 3.86 2009 Last Days
author: Brian Evenson
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Complete Maus 15195
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father’s story. Maus approaches the unspeakable through the diminutive. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks us out of any lingering sense of familiarity and succeeds in “drawing us closer to the bleak heart of the Holocaust� (The New York Times).

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek’s harrowing story of survival is woven into the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits. This astonishing retelling of our century’s grisliest news is a story of survival, not only of Vladek but of the children who survive even the survivors. Maus studies the bloody pawprints of history and tracks its meaning for all of us.]]> 296 Art Spiegelman 0141014083 Geoff 5 4.57 1980 The Complete Maus
author: Art Spiegelman
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/24
date added: 2024/07/24
shelves: wistful-or-comforting, veterans-war, recc-able, read-under-18yrs, fiction
review:

]]> The Wasp Factory 567678
The Wasp Factory is a work of horrifying compulsion: horrifying, because it enters a mind whose realities are not our own, whose values of life and death are alien to our society; compulsive, because the humour and compassion of that mind reach out to us all. A novel of extraordinary originality, imagination and comic ferocity.]]> 184 Iain Banks 0684853159 Geoff 1 Aha! I just finished reading We Have Always Lived in the Castle and I see now that this book was just a really poor manlier rewrite of the same idea, executed badly! What a rip-off! LOL

Original Review:

I'm gonna spoil the literal ending so move along if you clicked view anyway too flippantly.

The book's okay. It's a lot of quick cuts between hack and slash action meant to upset you or scare you. In some places it leads to darkly intriguing stories even though they are horrible, like the descriptions of the Frank's juvenile murders. Other parts, typically where anything involves animals or the hospital scene with his brother, were just not fun to read and not particularly enriching to the story (barring the last one, I GUESS, but you'll hear more on the brother's usefulness to the story at all.)

To be frank (haha), the way most of the sentences in this book are worded has me still scratching my head on whether or not it was originally published in English or if I'm reading a bad translation. Half of the sentences are worded clumsily, not quite in the passive voice but it sure feels like it. I'm sure the author wanted to try something to set the mood and thought it was interesting to just keep breaking out of the blue, but it did not work. It just killed the momentum repeatedly, because he kept introducing things in such a blase tone of voice that I kept having to jump back and reread to make sure I didn't miss it's first introduction. I get that the main character isn't particularly interested in the weird life he's leading most of the time, but I think that the wording was only to the story's detriment.

Nothing that happens in the book even matters, is another issue. Also, technically, barely anything happens at all during the book. All of the interest is in flashbacks. Frank does a bunch of potentially interesting things and hobbies that are not explained and honestly I think the author was going to do more with them and just gave up because he really thought his twist was a cincher. He does these rituals, no need to explain why.. that would be too interesting. Let's have another stilted conversation with the house maid at dinner instead. She's sure a useful and interesting character (she's not). It's hard to even find what to complain about because I genuinely think nothing that happened mattered to the story.

Frank's adolescent crimes are all the meat that is in this story. He has his altars and his occultish hobbies, they don't do anything, it's passingly explained that he thinks it will keep him safe. From what? How? I guess that's not interesting. Let's talk on the phone with his brother again who is going to barely say anything and start screaming about killing dogs again. Whoopee. Except the brother doesn't matter either. He calls the whole book and then shows up with his stupid firey animals again that no one cares about. He goes to blow up all the convenient bombs we heard earlier about being in the basement.. Don't worry though, this is The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, and nothing is going to happen in this book, so Frank simply plucks the torch out of the basement where it wasn't even close to igniting anything and that's that.

Frank has a best friend who's a dwarf, and he's a good friend to him. He's repeatedly mentioned and you might think to yourself well, something is going to happen there. He's going to do something or he's going to perhaps meet the brother or get injured or even supply us with the news of new events. Except he's not, because this is The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. Nothing happens with him, he is just there to accompany the main character on his bar visits (don't worry, nothing happened there either, because this is --).

Even the titular wasp factory is in one scene, and the author doesn't even give us the satisfaction of a surprise ending for that, we're told flat out he already got an answer and that he's going to get the same one (not to mention it's one of the less interesting of the described deaths possible in the factory). Even still, it gives us interesting implications about the potential truth behind Franks occultism.. Like I said before, I hope that interest was filling enough for you because we are back to only insinuating that things might be possible of happening, or might not, and Iain Banks will be damned if he gives you even a crumb more.

Why do we have to sit through this whole book where nothing happens, and even when things do, they're in past tense or outright dismissed (like the author describing the rabbit as some sort of hellish Monty Python creature, which I guess is just a rabbit after all. Or maybe the breaking of the all-important slingshot. Literally just makes a new one and says it won't be as good and that's that. He doesn't even use the thing for good plot use, only to kill animals and typically when they're dying anyway.) Because the author really, really was just stroking his ego about his ending twist. So, Frank was born a woman and was raised as a man by his father since birth.

What a coincidence, I'm ftm transgender. Honestly, I did not know this would happen when I picked up reading the story. I think this makes the painful, eye-rolling misogyny that the main character has in this book more intriguing. I've definitely seen ftm people struggle with their relationship to femininity and it's an interesting discussion.

Clearly, that's not what Iain Banks was going for in this story. It's just dumbed down and rinsed out. The main character, upon finding HRT and tampons he at first suspect must be for his father, immediately goes to kill him for it. Whatever, that little bastard is doing that all the time. The book explicitly says previously that the father let his brother, Eric, dress up "however he wanted" as a kid, including wearing dresses. The main character mused that this is why the boy is so messed up now, which is never rebuked, fine. We are told upon the revelation of the boy's "true" identity that the father allowing the boy to dress up in dresses when he wanted to was "practice" for the forcible and concealed transition of the main character. Thanks Iain Banks, you big clumsy oaf, really classy of you.

There would obviously be a lot of strange and uncomfortable feelings surrounding this situation from Frank's point of view, but considering nothing really happened other than flashbacks in this book so you have to assume there's some deeper symbolism there... Well. Once the main character finds out he was born female, the author tells us it dispelled a lot of the aggression for the world he had. Cool, although that does make it so quite literally, the main character finds out he was born female he instantly takes on a more caring, almost nurturing, dare I say feminine behavior? He says he's still the same person, and sees himself the same.. then in the next sentence says he's a girl and is going to tell his brother when he wakes up from the little mommy rest your head on me moment he's having. Okay...

I'm not offended by the character being ftm, and I'm not offended by anything in this book honestly. Clearly the author was out of his element and talking out of his ass about the most important twist in his book, and handling it clumsily on top of that.

What are we even supposed to do with that ending? What's the takeaway when the author goes back on even the gender presentation of the main character like that? What's the takeaway? That Frank was messed up because of his father's deceit? Or was it that he was messed up because he was a female forced to do "boy things" because they can't handle it? Does being transgender make you crazy? That hypermasculinity is only a downfall? Or is it another hamfisted political allegory that was seemingly so popular with authors in the 80s? The wikipedia page for the book says that Iain Banks once told the guardian that the book taking place on an island allowed him to "..treat the story as something resembling science fiction � the island could be envisaged as a planet, and Frank, the protagonist, almost as an alien."

I won't even get into the implications of him going into a story seeing the protagonist as an alien and making him a child-murdering child transsexual, it's heavy-handed on it's own. I will say, I have no idea what he's even talking about here. It doesn't scan on any level as remotely science fiction adjacent. The boy also repeatedly leaves the island and interacts normally, all things considered, with the locals. He even has a friend, like I said before. We're told repeatedly that he has agoraphobic and anti-social tendencies, but it's more for show and he doesn't seem genuinely upset or out of place whenever he goes into down. Other than being piss drunk.

Ironically, this clumsy likely-transphobic twist made the read at least partially redeemable. Overall a boring and sometimes frustrating book. In my opinion, it's the result of Banks coming up with this little ending twist and wanting to write a book filled with shock and horror. The rest of the book is mainly just a bunch of stumbling red herrings that are disappointing and a waste of a lot of reading time. It was an okay book.]]> 3.78 1984 The Wasp Factory
author: Iain Banks
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1984
rating: 1
read at: 2022/01/20
date added: 2024/07/05
shelves: lgbt, unreliable-or-villainous-narrators, don-t-bother, fiction, yawn
review:
Revisit 7/5/24:
Aha! I just finished reading We Have Always Lived in the Castle and I see now that this book was just a really poor manlier rewrite of the same idea, executed badly! What a rip-off! LOL

Original Review:

I'm gonna spoil the literal ending so move along if you clicked view anyway too flippantly.

The book's okay. It's a lot of quick cuts between hack and slash action meant to upset you or scare you. In some places it leads to darkly intriguing stories even though they are horrible, like the descriptions of the Frank's juvenile murders. Other parts, typically where anything involves animals or the hospital scene with his brother, were just not fun to read and not particularly enriching to the story (barring the last one, I GUESS, but you'll hear more on the brother's usefulness to the story at all.)

To be frank (haha), the way most of the sentences in this book are worded has me still scratching my head on whether or not it was originally published in English or if I'm reading a bad translation. Half of the sentences are worded clumsily, not quite in the passive voice but it sure feels like it. I'm sure the author wanted to try something to set the mood and thought it was interesting to just keep breaking out of the blue, but it did not work. It just killed the momentum repeatedly, because he kept introducing things in such a blase tone of voice that I kept having to jump back and reread to make sure I didn't miss it's first introduction. I get that the main character isn't particularly interested in the weird life he's leading most of the time, but I think that the wording was only to the story's detriment.

Nothing that happens in the book even matters, is another issue. Also, technically, barely anything happens at all during the book. All of the interest is in flashbacks. Frank does a bunch of potentially interesting things and hobbies that are not explained and honestly I think the author was going to do more with them and just gave up because he really thought his twist was a cincher. He does these rituals, no need to explain why.. that would be too interesting. Let's have another stilted conversation with the house maid at dinner instead. She's sure a useful and interesting character (she's not). It's hard to even find what to complain about because I genuinely think nothing that happened mattered to the story.

Frank's adolescent crimes are all the meat that is in this story. He has his altars and his occultish hobbies, they don't do anything, it's passingly explained that he thinks it will keep him safe. From what? How? I guess that's not interesting. Let's talk on the phone with his brother again who is going to barely say anything and start screaming about killing dogs again. Whoopee. Except the brother doesn't matter either. He calls the whole book and then shows up with his stupid firey animals again that no one cares about. He goes to blow up all the convenient bombs we heard earlier about being in the basement.. Don't worry though, this is The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, and nothing is going to happen in this book, so Frank simply plucks the torch out of the basement where it wasn't even close to igniting anything and that's that.

Frank has a best friend who's a dwarf, and he's a good friend to him. He's repeatedly mentioned and you might think to yourself well, something is going to happen there. He's going to do something or he's going to perhaps meet the brother or get injured or even supply us with the news of new events. Except he's not, because this is The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. Nothing happens with him, he is just there to accompany the main character on his bar visits (don't worry, nothing happened there either, because this is --).

Even the titular wasp factory is in one scene, and the author doesn't even give us the satisfaction of a surprise ending for that, we're told flat out he already got an answer and that he's going to get the same one (not to mention it's one of the less interesting of the described deaths possible in the factory). Even still, it gives us interesting implications about the potential truth behind Franks occultism.. Like I said before, I hope that interest was filling enough for you because we are back to only insinuating that things might be possible of happening, or might not, and Iain Banks will be damned if he gives you even a crumb more.

Why do we have to sit through this whole book where nothing happens, and even when things do, they're in past tense or outright dismissed (like the author describing the rabbit as some sort of hellish Monty Python creature, which I guess is just a rabbit after all. Or maybe the breaking of the all-important slingshot. Literally just makes a new one and says it won't be as good and that's that. He doesn't even use the thing for good plot use, only to kill animals and typically when they're dying anyway.) Because the author really, really was just stroking his ego about his ending twist. So, Frank was born a woman and was raised as a man by his father since birth.

What a coincidence, I'm ftm transgender. Honestly, I did not know this would happen when I picked up reading the story. I think this makes the painful, eye-rolling misogyny that the main character has in this book more intriguing. I've definitely seen ftm people struggle with their relationship to femininity and it's an interesting discussion.

Clearly, that's not what Iain Banks was going for in this story. It's just dumbed down and rinsed out. The main character, upon finding HRT and tampons he at first suspect must be for his father, immediately goes to kill him for it. Whatever, that little bastard is doing that all the time. The book explicitly says previously that the father let his brother, Eric, dress up "however he wanted" as a kid, including wearing dresses. The main character mused that this is why the boy is so messed up now, which is never rebuked, fine. We are told upon the revelation of the boy's "true" identity that the father allowing the boy to dress up in dresses when he wanted to was "practice" for the forcible and concealed transition of the main character. Thanks Iain Banks, you big clumsy oaf, really classy of you.

There would obviously be a lot of strange and uncomfortable feelings surrounding this situation from Frank's point of view, but considering nothing really happened other than flashbacks in this book so you have to assume there's some deeper symbolism there... Well. Once the main character finds out he was born female, the author tells us it dispelled a lot of the aggression for the world he had. Cool, although that does make it so quite literally, the main character finds out he was born female he instantly takes on a more caring, almost nurturing, dare I say feminine behavior? He says he's still the same person, and sees himself the same.. then in the next sentence says he's a girl and is going to tell his brother when he wakes up from the little mommy rest your head on me moment he's having. Okay...

I'm not offended by the character being ftm, and I'm not offended by anything in this book honestly. Clearly the author was out of his element and talking out of his ass about the most important twist in his book, and handling it clumsily on top of that.

What are we even supposed to do with that ending? What's the takeaway when the author goes back on even the gender presentation of the main character like that? What's the takeaway? That Frank was messed up because of his father's deceit? Or was it that he was messed up because he was a female forced to do "boy things" because they can't handle it? Does being transgender make you crazy? That hypermasculinity is only a downfall? Or is it another hamfisted political allegory that was seemingly so popular with authors in the 80s? The wikipedia page for the book says that Iain Banks once told the guardian that the book taking place on an island allowed him to "..treat the story as something resembling science fiction � the island could be envisaged as a planet, and Frank, the protagonist, almost as an alien."

I won't even get into the implications of him going into a story seeing the protagonist as an alien and making him a child-murdering child transsexual, it's heavy-handed on it's own. I will say, I have no idea what he's even talking about here. It doesn't scan on any level as remotely science fiction adjacent. The boy also repeatedly leaves the island and interacts normally, all things considered, with the locals. He even has a friend, like I said before. We're told repeatedly that he has agoraphobic and anti-social tendencies, but it's more for show and he doesn't seem genuinely upset or out of place whenever he goes into down. Other than being piss drunk.

Ironically, this clumsy likely-transphobic twist made the read at least partially redeemable. Overall a boring and sometimes frustrating book. In my opinion, it's the result of Banks coming up with this little ending twist and wanting to write a book filled with shock and horror. The rest of the book is mainly just a bunch of stumbling red herrings that are disappointing and a waste of a lot of reading time. It was an okay book.
]]> <![CDATA[We Have Always Lived in the Castle]]> 89724 Shirley Jackson’s beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family’s dark secret

Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate. This edition features a new introduction by Jonathan Lethem.]]> 152 Shirley Jackson 0143039970 Geoff 3 3.93 1962 We Have Always Lived in the Castle
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1962
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/05
date added: 2024/07/05
shelves:
review:

]]> The Escape (Snowpiercer, #1) 18594683 110 Jacques Lob 1782761438 Geoff 1 Really misogynist in an off-putting way. Why were they feeling each other up? Why is she acting like a cartoon of what a misogynist French guy thinks women act like? Oh wait. Also, I haven't picked up a graphic novel for a while but am I mistaken that this one isn't very effective? Show us the action and what's happening....

@pg 78
Pretty pictures and an almost-decent political statement. Other than the fact the main character doesn't seem personally interested. Oh, and it's so misogynistic. It is so so so so very distractingly misogynistic. Lob needs to think without his pecker. Every single woman has to be naked every scene. She runs to him to cry about being sexually assaulted and he fixes it by having sex with her again. It's really pathetic writing.

@finish
This shit sucked if I'm honest. Reads like a cope. Completely spineless characters and plot, it was frustrating.]]> 3.30 1982 The Escape (Snowpiercer, #1)
author: Jacques Lob
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.30
book published: 1982
rating: 1
read at: 2024/06/24
date added: 2024/06/24
shelves:
review:
@pg 37
Really misogynist in an off-putting way. Why were they feeling each other up? Why is she acting like a cartoon of what a misogynist French guy thinks women act like? Oh wait. Also, I haven't picked up a graphic novel for a while but am I mistaken that this one isn't very effective? Show us the action and what's happening....

@pg 78
Pretty pictures and an almost-decent political statement. Other than the fact the main character doesn't seem personally interested. Oh, and it's so misogynistic. It is so so so so very distractingly misogynistic. Lob needs to think without his pecker. Every single woman has to be naked every scene. She runs to him to cry about being sexually assaulted and he fixes it by having sex with her again. It's really pathetic writing.

@finish
This shit sucked if I'm honest. Reads like a cope. Completely spineless characters and plot, it was frustrating.
]]> <![CDATA[As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride]]> 21412202 Storm the castle once more

Standing on the stage for the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Princess Bride, I felt an almost overwhelming sense of gratitude and nostalgia. It was a remarkable night and it brought back vivid memories of being part of what appears to have become a cult classic film about pirates and princesses, giants and jesters, cliffs of insanity, and of course rodents of unusual size.

It truly was as fun to make the movie as it is to watch it, from getting to work on William Goldman's brilliant screenplay to being directed by the inimitable Rob Reiner. It is not an exaggeration to say that most days on set were exhilarating, from wrestling André the Giant, to the impossibility of playing mostly dead with Billy Crystal cracking jokes above me, to choreographing the Greatest Sword Fight in Modern Times with Mandy Patinkin, to being part of the Kiss That Left All the Others Behind with Robin Wright.

In this book I've gathered many more behind-the-scenes stories and hopefully answers to many of the questions we've all received over the years from fans. Additionally, Robin, Billy, Rob, and Mandy, as well as Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, Fred Savage, Chris Sarandon, Carol Kane, Norman Lear, and William Goldman graciously share their own memories and stories from making this treasured film.

If you'd like to know a little more about the making of The Princess Bride as seen through the eyes of a young actor who got much more than he bargained for, along with the rest of this brilliant cast, then all I can say is...as you wish.]]> 259 Cary Elwes 1476764026 Geoff 3 nonfiction, humor-satire 4.16 2014 As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride
author: Cary Elwes
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/21
date added: 2024/06/21
shelves: nonfiction, humor-satire
review:

]]> Echo 53329253
Travel journalist and mountaineer Nick Grevers awakes from a coma to find that his climbing buddy, Augustin, is missing and presumed dead. Nick’s own injuries are as extensive as they are horrifying. His face wrapped in bandages and unable to speak, Nick claims amnesia—but he remembers everything.

He remembers how he and Augustin were mysteriously drawn to the Maudit, a remote and scarcely documented peak in the Swiss Alps.

He remembers how the slopes of Maudit were eerily quiet, and how, when they entered its valley, they got the ominous sense that they were not alone.

He remembers: something was waiting for them...

But it isn’t just the memory of the accident that haunts Nick. Something has awakened inside of him, something that endangers the lives of everyone around him�

It’s one thing to lose your life. It’s another to lose your soul.

FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING SENSATION THOMAS OLDE HEUVELT comes a thrilling descent into madness and obsession as one man confronts nature—and something even more ancient and evil answers back.]]> 416 Thomas Olde Heuvelt 1250759552 Geoff 3 I have seen/read 2/2 of the little pop culture shove-ins so far.. but they better stop. It's giving Ready Player One. I don't necessarily mind a quote like the Survivor (I assume the Chuck quote came from there.. forgive me otherwise...) but the Inglorious Basterds one... that.. was not graceful. Cut that out.

@pg 37
Okay. I'm enjoying myself actually. Honestly, the type of personality the author is showcasing here is not exactly what you expect for this type of horror book. I initially prickled because I was misinterpreting Sam's personality. It's ringing the bells of my enjoyment of humorists or essayists like David Sedaris (and his cynicism..), Augusten Burroughs, or Frank Spinelli in Pee-Shy. Augusten is probably the biggest connection. I also somewhat recently read The Sluts by Dennis Cooper and this is evoking a similar feel-- though I must highlight the story so far is.. much much tamer-- but the attitudes and way of speaking and even some of the fun formatting is reminiscent. The actual horror experience is so far about on level with the movie "The Eye" with Jessica Alba but that isn't a dealbreaker. Also wow! I didn't know this was a Dutch translation! It explains some of the weird phrasing.. also I think it explains some of the complaints I've seen in other reviews where they seem really put off by the focus he has on "pecs" or "nipples" etc. I'm pretty sure that's just a combination of culture differences and translation efforts.

@pg 202
The site is down temporarily so I'm back with more thoughts. Okay, it's not very cool New York humorist. It is embarrassing at times. It's not offensive or annoying to me, though. I do wonder if references like "Sashay away" are literal translations or not. It's a bit try-hard. The timing of the plot just feels a little weird.. I also don't know why Cecile had to reappear.. it honestly doesn't make social dynamic sense but maybe it's just Europeanisms foreign to my American sensibilities. Even with the minor issues I have so far, I recently read and was pretty disappointed by The White Road by Sarah Lotz, and this is giving me basically everything I was hoping for from that book. Mixed with Kathe Koja's The Cipher.

@pg 246
I feel like this book reads more like a horror movie (see my The Eye comment above) than a horror books in ways it would just be improved if it took advantage of the medium. Because it's written work, you don't have to contrive to have random people the characters haven't met before have oddly caring and deep relationships even though they have no reason to (Cecile). I just don't know why she's here or why we keep seeing her. It feels lazy to not just have a character that has actual connections to these people and interpersonal dynamics you can also work with instead of her just being someone no one knows who feels "compelled to help". Is she just going to surprise twist turn on them? That would actually feel like an even bigger waste of time. I don't know why it needs to be a stranger at all and it's really unbelievable to me.

@pg 277
I was right, to zero surprise. Also. Thomas. This is not how you write an American. This is how you be annoying. If you think this is what Americans are like, you think they are annoying... even if you seem to have some type of fascination. Plus, you really need to be a little careful about these accent typings. When it comes to American english, some of these examples (sho'nuff) just aren't... appropriate. Also, anyone else think these songs aren't the best idea for these circumstances? I need to drown out constant screaming! How about Total Eclipse of the Heart, a ballad with lots of pauses in the music for the demons to scream over? Love is a Battlefield? Don't lose your mind during the soft synth break! Also, we go like one paragraph and he announces a song change. Beat the Ready Player One beast back!! Cease!

@pg 341
This isn't super impressive so far.. I've been slacking with reading but I don't think this book is altogether helping. Just wanted to say I'm fascinated by their healthcare system where Claire went in saying she was cold and was sent home diagnosed with thyroid issues and a bottle of hormone pills. America could never.

@pg 346
You will know what it's like to fall. and fall. and fall. Because every character in this book is going to spend paragraphs trying to convey how it feels to fall. and fall. and here's what they think infinity feels like. I never thought I'd say this, but I know every possible word Thomas is going to throw at the effects people feel because of Nick at this point. Can something actually interesting happen to forward the plot that isn't hokey? Also, this is just more medical than I thought I was getting. I keep reading books like these, wanting a survival story with supernatural elements thrown in.. It just seems like every single time the books like "Zag! It's not a cool survival in the wild story like you thought.. heh.. it's cool and different." Well, where the hell are those books? That's what I'm trying to read.

@end
IDK... I just... it was fine. ]]> 3.41 2019 Echo
author: Thomas Olde Heuvelt
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/21
date added: 2024/06/21
shelves:
review:
@Pg 17
I have seen/read 2/2 of the little pop culture shove-ins so far.. but they better stop. It's giving Ready Player One. I don't necessarily mind a quote like the Survivor (I assume the Chuck quote came from there.. forgive me otherwise...) but the Inglorious Basterds one... that.. was not graceful. Cut that out.

@pg 37
Okay. I'm enjoying myself actually. Honestly, the type of personality the author is showcasing here is not exactly what you expect for this type of horror book. I initially prickled because I was misinterpreting Sam's personality. It's ringing the bells of my enjoyment of humorists or essayists like David Sedaris (and his cynicism..), Augusten Burroughs, or Frank Spinelli in Pee-Shy. Augusten is probably the biggest connection. I also somewhat recently read The Sluts by Dennis Cooper and this is evoking a similar feel-- though I must highlight the story so far is.. much much tamer-- but the attitudes and way of speaking and even some of the fun formatting is reminiscent. The actual horror experience is so far about on level with the movie "The Eye" with Jessica Alba but that isn't a dealbreaker. Also wow! I didn't know this was a Dutch translation! It explains some of the weird phrasing.. also I think it explains some of the complaints I've seen in other reviews where they seem really put off by the focus he has on "pecs" or "nipples" etc. I'm pretty sure that's just a combination of culture differences and translation efforts.

@pg 202
The site is down temporarily so I'm back with more thoughts. Okay, it's not very cool New York humorist. It is embarrassing at times. It's not offensive or annoying to me, though. I do wonder if references like "Sashay away" are literal translations or not. It's a bit try-hard. The timing of the plot just feels a little weird.. I also don't know why Cecile had to reappear.. it honestly doesn't make social dynamic sense but maybe it's just Europeanisms foreign to my American sensibilities. Even with the minor issues I have so far, I recently read and was pretty disappointed by The White Road by Sarah Lotz, and this is giving me basically everything I was hoping for from that book. Mixed with Kathe Koja's The Cipher.

@pg 246
I feel like this book reads more like a horror movie (see my The Eye comment above) than a horror books in ways it would just be improved if it took advantage of the medium. Because it's written work, you don't have to contrive to have random people the characters haven't met before have oddly caring and deep relationships even though they have no reason to (Cecile). I just don't know why she's here or why we keep seeing her. It feels lazy to not just have a character that has actual connections to these people and interpersonal dynamics you can also work with instead of her just being someone no one knows who feels "compelled to help". Is she just going to surprise twist turn on them? That would actually feel like an even bigger waste of time. I don't know why it needs to be a stranger at all and it's really unbelievable to me.

@pg 277
I was right, to zero surprise. Also. Thomas. This is not how you write an American. This is how you be annoying. If you think this is what Americans are like, you think they are annoying... even if you seem to have some type of fascination. Plus, you really need to be a little careful about these accent typings. When it comes to American english, some of these examples (sho'nuff) just aren't... appropriate. Also, anyone else think these songs aren't the best idea for these circumstances? I need to drown out constant screaming! How about Total Eclipse of the Heart, a ballad with lots of pauses in the music for the demons to scream over? Love is a Battlefield? Don't lose your mind during the soft synth break! Also, we go like one paragraph and he announces a song change. Beat the Ready Player One beast back!! Cease!

@pg 341
This isn't super impressive so far.. I've been slacking with reading but I don't think this book is altogether helping. Just wanted to say I'm fascinated by their healthcare system where Claire went in saying she was cold and was sent home diagnosed with thyroid issues and a bottle of hormone pills. America could never.

@pg 346
You will know what it's like to fall. and fall. and fall. Because every character in this book is going to spend paragraphs trying to convey how it feels to fall. and fall. and here's what they think infinity feels like. I never thought I'd say this, but I know every possible word Thomas is going to throw at the effects people feel because of Nick at this point. Can something actually interesting happen to forward the plot that isn't hokey? Also, this is just more medical than I thought I was getting. I keep reading books like these, wanting a survival story with supernatural elements thrown in.. It just seems like every single time the books like "Zag! It's not a cool survival in the wild story like you thought.. heh.. it's cool and different." Well, where the hell are those books? That's what I'm trying to read.

@end
IDK... I just... it was fine.
]]> Black Tide 55155522
It was just another day at the beach. And then the world ended.

Mike and Beth didn’t know each other existed before the night of the meteor shower. A melancholy film producer and a house sitter barely scraping by, chance made them neighbors, a bottle of champagne brought them together, and a shared need for human connection sparked something more.

After a drunken and desperate one-night-stand, the two strangers awake to discover a surprise astronomical event has left widespread destruction in its wake. But the cosmic lightshow was only a part of something much bigger, and far more terrifying. When a set of lost car keys leaves them stranded on an empty stretch of Oregon coast, when their emergency calls go unanswered and inhuman screams echo from the dunes, when the rising tide reaches for the car and unspeakable horrors close in around them, these two self-destructive souls must find in each other the strength to overcome past pain and the fight to survive a nightmare of apocalyptic scale.]]> 245 K.C. Jones 125079269X Geoff 0 to-read 3.57 2022 Black Tide
author: K.C. Jones
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Aosawa Murders 51054767
The police are convinced Hisako had a role in the crime, as are many in the town, including the author of a bestselling book about the murders written a decade after the incident, who was herself a childhood friend of Hisako’s and witness to the discovery of the killings. The truth is revealed through a skillful juggling of testimony by different voices: family members, witnesses and neighbors, police investigators and of course the mesmerizing Hisako herself.]]> 315 Riku Onda 1912242249 Geoff 0 to-read 3.60 2004 The Aosawa Murders
author: Riku Onda
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves: to-read
review:
Started and immediately put to the side. Rambling conversations with no quotes and not really in the format they implied. It is more like reading the notes of a person who was going to write this than the actual thing. Translation thing I'm sure. May come back to it but not feeling the inherent sleepy droning from that format.
]]> This Wretched Valley 133206521
This nail-biting, bone-chilling survival horror novel is inspired by the infamous Dyatlov Pass incident, and is perfect for fans of Alma Katsu and Showtime's Yellowjackets.

This is going to be Dylan's big break. Her friend Clay, a geology student, has discovered an untouched cliff face in the Kentucky wilderness, and she is going to be the first person to climb it. Together with Clay, his research assistant Sylvia, and Dylan's boyfriend Luke, she is going to document her achievement on Instagram and finally cement her place as the next rising star in rock climbing.Ěý

Seven months later, three bodies are discovered in the trees just off the highway. All are in various states of decay: one body a stark, white skeleton; the second emptied of its organs; and the third a mutilated corpse with the tongue, eyes, ears, and fingers removed.

But Dylan is still missing. Followers of her Instagram account report seeing disturbing livestreams, and some even claim to have caught glimpses of her vanishing into the thick woods, but no trace of her—dead or alive—has been discovered.Ěý

Were the climbers murdered? Did they succumb to cannibalism? Or are their impossible bodies the work of an even more sinister force? Is Dylan still alive, and does she hold the answers?Ěý

This page-turning debut will have you racing towards the inevitable conclusion.]]> 304 Jenny Kiefer 168369368X Geoff 0 to-read 3.25 2024 This Wretched Valley
author: Jenny Kiefer
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Shuddering 17327053
A group of close friends gathers at a secluded cabin in the wintry mountains of Colorado for a final holiday hurrah. Instead, it may be their last stand. First a massive blizzard leaves them marooned. Then the more chilling realization: something is lurking in the woods, watching them, waiting...

Now a weekend of family, friends, and fun has turned into a test of love and loyalty in the face of inhuman horrors. The only hope for those huddled inside is to fight—tooth and nail, bullet and blade—for their lives. Otherwise, they'll end up like the monsters' other victims: bright pools of blood on glittering snow, screams lost in the vast mountains.]]> 283 Ania Ahlborn 1611099676 Geoff 0 to-read 3.60 2013 The Shuddering
author: Ania Ahlborn
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls]]> 59788674 The first full account of the Slenderman stabbing, a true crime narrative of mental illness, the American judicial system, the trials of adolescence, and the power of the internet

The Slenderman stabbing of May 31, 2014, in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, Wisconsin, shocked the local community and the world. The violence of Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, two twelve-year-old girls who attempted to stab their classmate to death, was extreme, but what seemed even more frightening was that they had done so under the influence of a figure born by the internet: the so-called “Slenderman.� Yet the even more urgent aspect of the story, that the children involved were suffering from undiagnosed mental illness, was often overlooked in coverage of the case.

Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls tells that full story for the first time in deeply researched detail, using court transcripts, police reports, individual reporting, and exclusive interviews. Morgan and Anissa were bound together by their shared love of geeky television shows and animals, and their discovery of the user-uploaded scary stories on the Creepypasta website could have been nothing more than a brief phase. But Morgan was suffering from early-onset childhood schizophrenia. She believed that she had been seeing Slenderman for many years, and the only way to stop him from killing her family was to bring him a sacrifice: Morgan’s best friend Payton “Bella� Leutner, whom Morgan and Anissa planned to stab to death on the night of Morgan’s twelfth birthday. Bella survived the attack, but was deeply traumatized, while Morgan and Anissa were immediately remanded into jail, and the severity of their crime meant that they would be prosecuted as adults. There, as Morgan continued to suffer from worsening mental illness after being denied antipsychotics, her life became more and more surreal.

Slenderman is both a page-turning true crime story and a search for justice.]]> 348 Kathleen Hale 080215980X Geoff 0 to-read 3.94 2022 Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls
author: Kathleen Hale
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Only One Left 62703226 At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.

Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life

It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer�I want to tell you everything.

“It wasn’t me,� Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead

As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.]]> 383 Riley Sager 0593183223 Geoff 0 to-read 4.12 2023 The Only One Left
author: Riley Sager
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Manicurist's Daughter 127305940 An emotionally raw memoir about the crumbling of the American Dream and a daughter of refugees who searches for answers after her mother dies during plastic surgery

Susan Lieu has long been searching for answers about her family’s past and about her own future. Refugees from the Vietnam War, Susan’s family escaped to California in the 1980s after five failed attempts. Upon arrival, Susan’s mother was their savvy, charismatic North Star, setting up two successful nail salons and orchestrating every success―until Susan was eleven. That year, her mother died from a botched tummy tuck. After the funeral, no one was ever allowed to talk about her or what had happened.

For the next twenty years, Susan navigated a series of cascading questions alone―why did the most perfect person in her life want to change her body? Why would no one tell her about her mother’s life in Vietnam? And how did this surgeon, who preyed on Vietnamese immigrants, go on operating after her mother’s death? Sifting through depositions, tracking down the surgeon’s family, and enlisting the help of spirit channelers, Susan uncovers the painful truth of her mother, herself, and the impossible ideal of beauty.]]> 320 Susan Lieu Geoff 0 to-read 3.93 2024 The Manicurist's Daughter
author: Susan Lieu
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Nothing to See Here 49086091 New York TimesĚýbestselling author ofĚýThe Family Fang, a moving and uproarious novel about a woman who finds meaning in her life when she begins caring for two children with a remarkable ability.

Lillian and Madison were unlikely roommates and yet inseparable friends at their elite boarding school. But then Lillian had to leave the school unexpectedly in the wake of a scandal and they’ve barely spoken since. Until now, when Lillian gets a letter from Madison pleading for her help.

Madison’s twin stepkids are moving in with her family and she wants Lillian to be their caretaker. However, there’s a catch: the twins spontaneously combust when they get agitated, flames igniting from their skin in a startling but beautiful way. Lillian is convinced Madison is pulling her leg, but it’s the truth.

Thinking of her dead-end life at home, the life that has consistently disappointed her, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose. Over the course of one humid, demanding summer, Lillian and the twins learn to trust each other—and stay cool—while also staying out of the way of Madison’s buttoned-up politician husband. Surprised by her own ingenuity yet unused to the intense feelings of protectiveness she feels for them, Lillian ultimately begins to accept that she needs these strange children as much as they need her—urgently and fiercely. Couldn’t this be the start of the amazing life she’d always hoped for?

With white-hot wit and a big, tender heart, Kevin Wilson has written his best book yet—a most unusual story of parental love.]]> 288 Kevin Wilson 0062913492 Geoff 3 It's a bit past now, but I keep thinking about the comment Lillian made about "teaching the kids Tennessee history, so it's relevant to them, instead of what the Man wants them to learn".
I have no idea where Kevin Wilson went to school in Tennessee.. but I spent a fair amount of my elementary and almost my entire middle school career learning Tennessee history and geography... then immediately moved to Maine when I graduated high school. Sort of exactly what The Man in Tennessee wants us to learn... hardly as radical as he's wording it. Really want to put the microphone up to his mouth and get his opinion on what they are teaching instead of Tennessee history...

@finish
There's some nice stuff in here with the dynamics between Madison and Lillian but it's ultimately really nothing. This is a young adult book but with swears and about parenthood. There is nothing groundbreaking about a fiesty woman character settling down and completing herself with kids. The stakes really seem nonexistent and the ones that are introduced are just absurd and seem fake. There's a lot of room dedicated to people making imperfect and complex choices, but the characters aren't really dimensional enough to back it up. Also can I be real... the fire scenes aren't exciting.]]> 4.04 2019 Nothing to See Here
author: Kevin Wilson
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/06
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves:
review:
@pg 190
It's a bit past now, but I keep thinking about the comment Lillian made about "teaching the kids Tennessee history, so it's relevant to them, instead of what the Man wants them to learn".
I have no idea where Kevin Wilson went to school in Tennessee.. but I spent a fair amount of my elementary and almost my entire middle school career learning Tennessee history and geography... then immediately moved to Maine when I graduated high school. Sort of exactly what The Man in Tennessee wants us to learn... hardly as radical as he's wording it. Really want to put the microphone up to his mouth and get his opinion on what they are teaching instead of Tennessee history...

@finish
There's some nice stuff in here with the dynamics between Madison and Lillian but it's ultimately really nothing. This is a young adult book but with swears and about parenthood. There is nothing groundbreaking about a fiesty woman character settling down and completing herself with kids. The stakes really seem nonexistent and the ones that are introduced are just absurd and seem fake. There's a lot of room dedicated to people making imperfect and complex choices, but the characters aren't really dimensional enough to back it up. Also can I be real... the fire scenes aren't exciting.
]]> <![CDATA[The Watchers (The Watchers, #1)]]> 58321103
Mina finds herself in a room with a wall of glass, and an electric light that activates at nightfall, when the Watchers come above ground. These creatures emerge to observe their captive humans—and terrible things happen to anyone who doesn't reach the bunker in time.

Afraid and trapped among strangers, Mina is desperate for answers. Who are the Watchers? Why are these creatures keeping them imprisoned? And, most importantly, how can she escape?]]> 310 A.M. Shine 1801102120 Geoff 0 to-read 3.82 2021 The Watchers (The Watchers, #1)
author: A.M. Shine
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> None of This Is True 62334530
A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?]]> 390 Lisa Jewell 1982179007 Geoff 0 to-read 4.08 2023 None of This Is True
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> ±á´Ç°ů°ů´Ç°ů˛őłŮö°ů 13129925
To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.

A traditional haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting, ±á´Ç°ů°ů´Ç°ů˛őłŮö°ů is designed to retain its luster and natural appearance for a lifetime of use. Pleasingly proportioned with generous French flaps and a softcover binding, ±á´Ç°ů°ů´Ç°ů˛őłŮö°ů delivers the psychological terror you need in the elegant package you deserve.

Designed by Andie Reid, cover photography by Christine Ferrara.]]> 248 Grady Hendrix 1594745269 Geoff 0 to-read 3.64 2014 ±á´Ç°ů°ů´Ç°ů˛őłŮö°ů
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Icy Sparks 3476
Narrated by a grown up Icy, the book chronicles a difficult, but ultimately hilarious and heartwarming journey, from her first spasms to her self-acceptance as a young woman. Curious about life beyond the hills, talented, and energetic, Icy learns to cut through all barriers—physical, mental, and spiritual—in order to find community and acceptance.]]> 320 Gwyn Hyman Rubio 0142000205 Geoff 0 to-read 3.69 1998 Icy Sparks
author: Gwyn Hyman Rubio
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Handyman 35682516 334 Bentley Little 1587676168 Geoff 0 to-read 3.63 2017 The Handyman
author: Bentley Little
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Skin 125958 395 Ted Dekker 1595542779 Geoff 1 dnf, don-t-bother
"What's this 'tard.. some kinda... idiot savant? Ho-lee shit... He saw some wet footprints... boys... the fuck?"
[next page]
She looked meaningfully at his scared-of-women eyes with her scared-of-men eyes, their passion and upcoming romance already building within them.

@page 94

"Without bragging, the gamer character I introduced (he is based on my son's interest and hobbies, I'm what you'd call a cool dad) immediately told everyone he had just met his IQ. This displays not only that he thinks he's smarter than everyone, but that I think the audience is too stupid to pick up on him being intelligent otherwise. It's a good thing when you have to constantly tell your audience that the characters are humble. All of my characters are humble. The main girl is humble, the main guy, Nicole is so humble despite being beautiful.. her brother... well he's what one might call.... self-effacing." What is going on. Why are we being subjected to this. I can't tell if it is just a play to make the characters likeable (I guess I don't hate them... but I don't like the reading experience and these people are fictional) or if it is (clumsily) setting the stage for mystery about Sterling Red's identity.

Wait a second. I picked this book up at the library.. all proud of myself for being able to find something new that seemed readable. What the fuck do you mean it's Christian Fiction? What do you mean it's going to end by them all being in a video game? Man, fuck this. DNF.]]> 3.78 2006 Skin
author: Ted Dekker
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2006
rating: 1
read at: 2024/04/30
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: dnf, don-t-bother
review:
@page 50

"What's this 'tard.. some kinda... idiot savant? Ho-lee shit... He saw some wet footprints... boys... the fuck?"
[next page]
She looked meaningfully at his scared-of-women eyes with her scared-of-men eyes, their passion and upcoming romance already building within them.

@page 94

"Without bragging, the gamer character I introduced (he is based on my son's interest and hobbies, I'm what you'd call a cool dad) immediately told everyone he had just met his IQ. This displays not only that he thinks he's smarter than everyone, but that I think the audience is too stupid to pick up on him being intelligent otherwise. It's a good thing when you have to constantly tell your audience that the characters are humble. All of my characters are humble. The main girl is humble, the main guy, Nicole is so humble despite being beautiful.. her brother... well he's what one might call.... self-effacing." What is going on. Why are we being subjected to this. I can't tell if it is just a play to make the characters likeable (I guess I don't hate them... but I don't like the reading experience and these people are fictional) or if it is (clumsily) setting the stage for mystery about Sterling Red's identity.

Wait a second. I picked this book up at the library.. all proud of myself for being able to find something new that seemed readable. What the fuck do you mean it's Christian Fiction? What do you mean it's going to end by them all being in a video game? Man, fuck this. DNF.
]]> The Ritual 10239382
Lost, hungry and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, they stumble across an isolated old house. Inside, they find the macabre remains of old rites and pagan sacrifices; ancient artefacts and unidentifiable bones. This place of dark ritual is home to a bestial predator that is still alive in the ancient forest. And now they’re the prey.

As the four friends struggle for salvation, they discover that death doesn’t come easy among these ancient trees...]]> 418 Adam L.G. Nevill 0230754929 Geoff 3
Also, this better not have anything to do with Last Days. I'm saying that in advance. I want no connections, the more that book tried to reveal its lore the less I liked it. It actually linearly got worse as it went along.

@ Page 208: They're "about to make their final stand" *checks remaining page count* don't think so fellas! Also, it says explicitly that Luke broke Dom's nose during the fight. That is sort of dropped immediately.

@ page 336: This is kind of getting worse as it goes along... I feel like people read this because they want the wilderness survival (or not) and I don't think Nevill really could write that story. But the direction its going is convoluted and boring and eyeroll again.. like Last Days.

@ finish: I wish I could've read the second half of the first half of this book. It just splits off into a new section and I don't like Nevill's brand of mysticism. I didn't like the actual religion the cult had in Last Days and I don't like what's going on here either. If anything, even the name was a letdown because there weren't any successful rituals in the damn book. It's fine overall, better than Last Days and makes more sense, but it still seems like it's written by a less experienced and maybe personally immature writer.]]> 3.57 2011 The Ritual
author: Adam L.G. Nevill
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/05
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: don-t-bother, horror, fiction, yawn
review:
@ Page 21: JESUS! Anyone else more concerned about the fact they just suggested to start a fire in the ol' fireplace than going in the certainly haunted little house? That shit hasn't been cleaned for so long, you are going to wake up dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. We're gonna get to the end and be told you were all just hallucinating from a gas leak!

Also, this better not have anything to do with Last Days. I'm saying that in advance. I want no connections, the more that book tried to reveal its lore the less I liked it. It actually linearly got worse as it went along.

@ Page 208: They're "about to make their final stand" *checks remaining page count* don't think so fellas! Also, it says explicitly that Luke broke Dom's nose during the fight. That is sort of dropped immediately.

@ page 336: This is kind of getting worse as it goes along... I feel like people read this because they want the wilderness survival (or not) and I don't think Nevill really could write that story. But the direction its going is convoluted and boring and eyeroll again.. like Last Days.

@ finish: I wish I could've read the second half of the first half of this book. It just splits off into a new section and I don't like Nevill's brand of mysticism. I didn't like the actual religion the cult had in Last Days and I don't like what's going on here either. If anything, even the name was a letdown because there weren't any successful rituals in the damn book. It's fine overall, better than Last Days and makes more sense, but it still seems like it's written by a less experienced and maybe personally immature writer.
]]> In the Miso Soup 818118 180 Ryū Murakami Geoff 2
Me picking this book: It's only 187 pages! It'll fly by!
Me, exhausted from the machismo 16 pages in and having spent the last hour mindlessly scrolling goodreads instead: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

@ pg 28

Murakami is really worried we won't pick up on hints. He repeats every one at least three times, which on top of the fact I'm reading a book that is billed as a gory horror novel with references to cannibalism in the title, seems redundant.

Kenji when he sees anyone standing by themselves ever: This smacks of..... loneliness?

@ pg 61

In b4 this hot pot scene gets replayed and his girlfriend is the mincemeat. Because she's thoughtful like that. Or, this is going the route of Every Single Japanese horror ever and she is the murderer! He's eating people!

@ pg 112

Uh...okay... all the bullshitting but he's just.. sure..? There goes the intrigue.... The wind up and reasoning for the slaying really take the wind out of this. Just stupid...

@ pg 128

I don't get it, we get kind of low quality writing up until the club scene. The club scene reads like it was written on its own with the story formed around it. The dude is some magical whitey, and the descriptions are trying so hard to be gruesome that they remind me of my edgy writings in middle school. Then, they walk out and we start up on some misogynist rhetoric AGAIN? The same rhetoric as earlier? What the hell did that scene have to do with high schooler sex worker girls? It's not even that being against high school girls being sex workers is misogynist, I just don't think it's possible to write this sequence like this and not be one.

@ pg 132

Oh god he's recapping the symbolism step by step somebody stop him! Also, what Kenji is saying is stupid. I feel like a lot of Japanese authors have a fixation on (writing characters who talk at length of) being mildly disgusted and distasteful of people they feel like are shallow and one-dimensional with no deeper thoughts or emotions. It's just that it's not true. They are perceiving people around them to be surface level, but it's really not possible in the amounts they suggest. People don't not exist outside of what they share with others, and some people aren't good communicators or don't have interest in making deep connections (with snobs).

@ pg 163

I'm classic American boy! With my french cookies and my coal mine ponds filled with swans!

@ finish

]]> 3.55 1997 In the Miso Soup
author: Ryū Murakami
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1997
rating: 2
read at: 2024/01/04
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: fiction, thriller, horror, dont-look-over-my-shoulder, sex-within, unreliable-or-villainous-narrators
review:
@ pg 16

Me picking this book: It's only 187 pages! It'll fly by!
Me, exhausted from the machismo 16 pages in and having spent the last hour mindlessly scrolling goodreads instead: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

@ pg 28

Murakami is really worried we won't pick up on hints. He repeats every one at least three times, which on top of the fact I'm reading a book that is billed as a gory horror novel with references to cannibalism in the title, seems redundant.

Kenji when he sees anyone standing by themselves ever: This smacks of..... loneliness?

@ pg 61

In b4 this hot pot scene gets replayed and his girlfriend is the mincemeat. Because she's thoughtful like that. Or, this is going the route of Every Single Japanese horror ever and she is the murderer! He's eating people!

@ pg 112

Uh...okay... all the bullshitting but he's just.. sure..? There goes the intrigue.... The wind up and reasoning for the slaying really take the wind out of this. Just stupid...

@ pg 128

I don't get it, we get kind of low quality writing up until the club scene. The club scene reads like it was written on its own with the story formed around it. The dude is some magical whitey, and the descriptions are trying so hard to be gruesome that they remind me of my edgy writings in middle school. Then, they walk out and we start up on some misogynist rhetoric AGAIN? The same rhetoric as earlier? What the hell did that scene have to do with high schooler sex worker girls? It's not even that being against high school girls being sex workers is misogynist, I just don't think it's possible to write this sequence like this and not be one.

@ pg 132

Oh god he's recapping the symbolism step by step somebody stop him! Also, what Kenji is saying is stupid. I feel like a lot of Japanese authors have a fixation on (writing characters who talk at length of) being mildly disgusted and distasteful of people they feel like are shallow and one-dimensional with no deeper thoughts or emotions. It's just that it's not true. They are perceiving people around them to be surface level, but it's really not possible in the amounts they suggest. People don't not exist outside of what they share with others, and some people aren't good communicators or don't have interest in making deep connections (with snobs).

@ pg 163

I'm classic American boy! With my french cookies and my coal mine ponds filled with swans!

@ finish


]]> <![CDATA[Watermelons, Nooses, and Straight Razors: Stories from the Jim Crow Museum]]> 34734643 Watermelons, Nooses, and Straight Razors examines the origins and significance of several longstanding anti-black stories and the caricatures and stereotypes that undergird them. It features images from the Jim Crow Museum, the nation's largest publicly accessible collection of racist objects. These pictures document the social injustice that Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as a pus-filled boil “which must be exposed to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.� Each chapter concludes with a story from the author's journey, challenging the integrity of racial narratives.]]> 272 David Pilgrim 1629634379 Geoff 5
This book is overall very good, well put, and educating.]]> 4.68 Watermelons, Nooses, and Straight Razors: Stories from the Jim Crow Museum
author: David Pilgrim
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.68
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/08
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: nonfiction, dont-look-over-my-shoulder
review:
The only complaint I can make towards the book is the end left me a little exasperated that he wasn't including women in this symbolic brotherhood moment, and we have to hear more on that later. While you're welcome to expand more later... why exclude? Why not extend the thought and its symbolism to women when you are to white murderers? I thought someone so involved in racial social commentary would be a little less obtuse about gender equality.

This book is overall very good, well put, and educating.
]]> Nothing But Blackened Teeth 53195923 Cassandra Khaw's Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a gorgeously creepy haunted house tale, steeped in Japanese folklore and full of devastating twists.

A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company.

It’s the perfect wedding venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends.

But a night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.

And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.

Effortlessly turning the classic haunted house story on its head, Nothing but Blackened Teeth is a sharp and devastating exploration of grief, the parasitic nature of relationships, and the consequences of our actions.]]> 125 Cassandra Khaw 1250759412 Geoff 1 don-t-bother, yawn, horror
@ pg 89

?? Why are there no stakes? Why does all the ghost and yokai stuff just sit there doing nothing? Can something happen? Apparently we are supposed to be emotionally invested in these relationship squabbles.. and it seems to me that Lin is supposed to be endearing like the movie Scream... :| Not for me. I can't tell Cat's motivation for anything, and if she's meant to be supernaturally driven... It's not working for me, what can I say. I think the idea of the main character and their struggles are interesting, but the specific way she's presented just makes her unpleasant to be around. She doesn't like anyone and is constantly dwelling on how they've wronged her, but also they helped her so much she can't leave them behind! But also she's leaving! No she's not! Let me get some more of that pond scum water! I just wasn't expecting such a cliche western-style horror story based on stupid teenagers getting haunted/hunted (and quipping about how cliche it is the whole time, which is a cliche in itself) that takes place in Japan.

Also, I'm not so silly that I think it is a main scare in the book... but there is nothing inherently scary about the tradition of blackening teeth to me.... It'd be like being scared of fillings.

I also can't pretend I am not highly disappointed about the 100 story ritual being completely skipped over, no one apparently flinched or cared the entire time, and then we get to hear one story. It is a brief, unemotional recap of the previous chapters. :| Why have that sequence at all!

@ finish

This book is not good. It's hodgepodge, things that are boring are recounted in detail and exciting things are skipped. Its language is just. No. It is trying too hard and it doesn't have flow, and it clashes with itself by being overly simplistic in other areas. None of the characters are human beings with logical motivations and NOTHING. HAPPENS. A character dies and somehow it doesn't even warrant something exciting happening. Even the death is stupid. I just feel like everything that happened was stupid.]]> 2.64 2021 Nothing But Blackened Teeth
author: Cassandra Khaw
name: Geoff
average rating: 2.64
book published: 2021
rating: 1
read at: 2024/01/11
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: don-t-bother, yawn, horror
review:
I don't care about this groups petty relationship drama, but that's probably not the main point so that's fine. Some of the text is a little convoluted, seems a bit like an odd translation or maybe just a case of consulting the thesaurus too much. For example: "Too excited to have ever molded the Ecstacy-glutted into shambolic choreography, but that had always been a plus point for its most strident advocate." Translation: My friend Lin likes fast techno music you can't dance to. (Also in this section I just want to say I don't know if I agree with capitalizing ecstasy to distinguish it as the drug, but I understand less-western audiences wouldn't be as familiar.)

@ pg 89

?? Why are there no stakes? Why does all the ghost and yokai stuff just sit there doing nothing? Can something happen? Apparently we are supposed to be emotionally invested in these relationship squabbles.. and it seems to me that Lin is supposed to be endearing like the movie Scream... :| Not for me. I can't tell Cat's motivation for anything, and if she's meant to be supernaturally driven... It's not working for me, what can I say. I think the idea of the main character and their struggles are interesting, but the specific way she's presented just makes her unpleasant to be around. She doesn't like anyone and is constantly dwelling on how they've wronged her, but also they helped her so much she can't leave them behind! But also she's leaving! No she's not! Let me get some more of that pond scum water! I just wasn't expecting such a cliche western-style horror story based on stupid teenagers getting haunted/hunted (and quipping about how cliche it is the whole time, which is a cliche in itself) that takes place in Japan.

Also, I'm not so silly that I think it is a main scare in the book... but there is nothing inherently scary about the tradition of blackening teeth to me.... It'd be like being scared of fillings.

I also can't pretend I am not highly disappointed about the 100 story ritual being completely skipped over, no one apparently flinched or cared the entire time, and then we get to hear one story. It is a brief, unemotional recap of the previous chapters. :| Why have that sequence at all!

@ finish

This book is not good. It's hodgepodge, things that are boring are recounted in detail and exciting things are skipped. Its language is just. No. It is trying too hard and it doesn't have flow, and it clashes with itself by being overly simplistic in other areas. None of the characters are human beings with logical motivations and NOTHING. HAPPENS. A character dies and somehow it doesn't even warrant something exciting happening. Even the death is stupid. I just feel like everything that happened was stupid.
]]> The Terror 3974 Terror have every expectation of triumph. As part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage, they are as scientifically supported an enterprise as has ever set forth. As they enter a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, though, they are stranded in a nightmarish landscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, with diminishing rations, 126 men fight to survive with poisonous food, a dwindling supply of coal, and ships buckling in the grip of crushing ice. But their real enemy is far more terrifying. There is something out there in the frigid darkness: an unseen predator stalking their ship, a monstrous terror constantly clawing to get in.

When the expedition's leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a terrible death, Captain Francis Crozier takes command and leads his surviving crewmen on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. With them travels an Inuit woman who cannot speak and who may be the key to survival, or the harbinger of their deaths. But as another winter approaches, as scurvy and starvation grow more terrible, and as the terror on the ice stalks them southward, Crozier and his men begin to fear that there is no escape.]]> 769 Dan Simmons 0316017442 Geoff 5
I've been doing my best to take this book's faults in stride, because overall the experience of reading is pretty enjoyable and captivating. I thought the Poe tie-in was cheesy, mainly since he bothered to explain how they knew the story. It still was interesting. I... this Darwin thing is embarrassing. It is like a Forrest Gumpism. "Aye, I need to explain something real metaphorical, lad. So, remember hows we use to crew with Charles Darwin? That's how I know this shite. Anyway, onto the musin'."

I know if he didn't give a "reasonable explanation" about why people would be having contemplative thoughts of information that wasn't popular at the time people would complain...It's so, so cheesy. All attempted tie-ins to "real" history leave me secondhand embarrassed. The fact that the whole story is a fictional history of a real ship instead of a fake ship is cheesy stupid to me already.

@ Finish

No review yet.]]> 4.06 2007 The Terror
author: Dan Simmons
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/25
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: books-i-was-recc-d, fiction, favorites, horror, thriller
review:
@pg 370

I've been doing my best to take this book's faults in stride, because overall the experience of reading is pretty enjoyable and captivating. I thought the Poe tie-in was cheesy, mainly since he bothered to explain how they knew the story. It still was interesting. I... this Darwin thing is embarrassing. It is like a Forrest Gumpism. "Aye, I need to explain something real metaphorical, lad. So, remember hows we use to crew with Charles Darwin? That's how I know this shite. Anyway, onto the musin'."

I know if he didn't give a "reasonable explanation" about why people would be having contemplative thoughts of information that wasn't popular at the time people would complain...It's so, so cheesy. All attempted tie-ins to "real" history leave me secondhand embarrassed. The fact that the whole story is a fictional history of a real ship instead of a fake ship is cheesy stupid to me already.

@ Finish

No review yet.
]]> Helpmeet 60301701 94 Naben Ruthnum 1988964385 Geoff 2
@ finish
This isn't really scary. It's a bit verbose for its content but its a nice, wistful short story. I understand why she would want to be joined with Edward, but his infidelity was a drag and I don't get the symbolism here when the creature is both causing it, proposing it, punishing with it, etc. etc.]]> 3.31 2022 Helpmeet
author: Naben Ruthnum
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/01/31
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: horror, dont-look-over-my-shoulder
review:
No no no the only copy they have on archive.org is shakily underlined and annotated by someone who doesn't even know how to annotate. Next to a sentence saying that his face is gross from his illness they wrote a question mark. I feel like that tweet. You never read a book before? You read it and information is revealed.

@ finish
This isn't really scary. It's a bit verbose for its content but its a nice, wistful short story. I understand why she would want to be joined with Edward, but his infidelity was a drag and I don't get the symbolism here when the creature is both causing it, proposing it, punishing with it, etc. etc.
]]> <![CDATA[Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood]]> 4507
Sickened

From early childhood, Julie Gregory was continually X-rayed, medicated, and operated on—in the vain pursuit of an illness that was created in her mother’s mind. Munchausen by proxy (MBP) is the world’s most hidden and dangerous form of child abuse, in which the caretaker—almost always the mother—invents or induces symptoms in her child because she craves the attention of medical professionals. Many MBP children die, but Julie Gregory not only survived, she escaped the powerful orbit of her mother's madness and rebuilt her identity as a vibrant, healthy young woman.

Sickened is a remarkable memoir that speaks in an original and distinctive Midwestern voice, rising to indelible scenes in prose of scathing beauty and fierce humor. Punctuated with Julie's actual medical records, it re-creates the bizarre cocoon of her family's isolated double-wide trailer, their wild shopping sprees and gun-waving confrontations, the astonishing naïveté of medical professionals and social workers. It also exposes the twisted bonds of terror and love that roped Julie's family together—including the love that made a child willing to sacrifice herself to win her mother's happiness.

The realization that the sickness lay in her mother, not in herself, would not come to Julie until adulthood. But when it did, it would strike like lightning. Through her painful metamorphosis, she discovered the courage to save her own life—and, ultimately, the life of the girl her mother had found to replace her. Sickened takes us to new places in the human heart and spirit. It is an unforgettable story, unforgettably told.]]> 244 Julie Gregory 0553803077 Geoff 3 nonfiction 3.74 2003 Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood
author: Julie Gregory
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/01
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: nonfiction
review:

]]> My Sister’s Keeper 10917 New York Times best-selling author Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into the hearts and minds of real people. Now she tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness.

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age 13 she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate—a life and a role that she has never challenged ... until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister—and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart or let others lead you? Once again, in My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.]]> 423 Jodi Picoult 0743454537 Geoff 1 fiction I really do not like his service dog routine at all.

@214
I actually don't like him at all, and could care less about this stupid romance subplot.

@276
Aaaaand now I hate stupid annoying Julia too. I really don't see how anyone on Earth could find these date scenes romantic, I don't even find them tolerable.

@279
OH MY GOD HE IS SO ANNOYING!!!!! THIS BOOK IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT TWO SISTERS!!!!! Jodi you are SO FUCKING ANNOYING.

@341
And I don't care about the parents being romantic, either.

@365
Oh so he has to pass out too? Ham it up some more, why don't you?

@391
GOD, I HATE THE MOTHER!

@398
Make it stop! Make the conflicts of interest and complete disregard for the professional morals OF EVERY CHARACTER PRESENT end! It is so distracting to think about how inappropriate this all is the whole book! Even during this stupid soap opera car crash!

@finish
This book is literally just bad. I read it in one day, and even without the usual drawbacks to rebuff me (racism, misogyny, bullshit) it was just bad. I hate everyone in this book, even Anna (who you could see was going to die a mile away because the whole book she did not act like any child on Earth and instead acted as a vessel for the author to voice the opinions she considered Most Correct). Fuck it. Why should I even care about whether she's alive or not when this whole book is lying about being about her and her sister, but the author is way more invested in the Complicated Adult feelings (trite relationship drama about men making women whole, and abusive parents featuring a mom we're all supposed to relate to while she literally, literally does not care for Anna the whole book. There is no portion of this book when she is by herself thinking of her children that it is Anna and her happiness. Literally not a page.) while the girls are thrown around like martyrs just to tug at the audiences' heartstrings. Also, why does the brother exist at all? Are we just going to breeze over all that? It was stupid enough that he was doing everything he was but now we're going to go full bootlicker cop? Fuck off. The proto-fault-in-our-stars moment, while I acknowledge it happened before that book, you just know where it's going and it was again annoying to me that the author is trying so hard to make every moment a tragedy. Well I don't care about that boy he was a plot device that barely had a personality for like 5 pages and then died.

Also, when it comes to the topic of "designer babies" which it praises her for covering in the questions with the author at the end. I am disappointed that instead of even mentioning the real world problems, like eugenics, we just get this fantasy story. I don't see how it is very helpful to the national conversation when it ultimately sides with eugenicists and people who would selectively breed Kate out of existence (and the mother's lesbian sister). Not that I think this use was particularly justified, but non-political women reading chick-lit like this and forming opinions off it could be harmful. But at the end of the day, it isn't the author's ultimate responsibility. I guess.

]]> 4.10 2004 My Sister’s Keeper
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2004
rating: 1
read at: 2024/02/05
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: fiction
review:
@201
I really do not like his service dog routine at all.

@214
I actually don't like him at all, and could care less about this stupid romance subplot.

@276
Aaaaand now I hate stupid annoying Julia too. I really don't see how anyone on Earth could find these date scenes romantic, I don't even find them tolerable.

@279
OH MY GOD HE IS SO ANNOYING!!!!! THIS BOOK IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT TWO SISTERS!!!!! Jodi you are SO FUCKING ANNOYING.

@341
And I don't care about the parents being romantic, either.

@365
Oh so he has to pass out too? Ham it up some more, why don't you?

@391
GOD, I HATE THE MOTHER!

@398
Make it stop! Make the conflicts of interest and complete disregard for the professional morals OF EVERY CHARACTER PRESENT end! It is so distracting to think about how inappropriate this all is the whole book! Even during this stupid soap opera car crash!

@finish
This book is literally just bad. I read it in one day, and even without the usual drawbacks to rebuff me (racism, misogyny, bullshit) it was just bad. I hate everyone in this book, even Anna (who you could see was going to die a mile away because the whole book she did not act like any child on Earth and instead acted as a vessel for the author to voice the opinions she considered Most Correct). Fuck it. Why should I even care about whether she's alive or not when this whole book is lying about being about her and her sister, but the author is way more invested in the Complicated Adult feelings (trite relationship drama about men making women whole, and abusive parents featuring a mom we're all supposed to relate to while she literally, literally does not care for Anna the whole book. There is no portion of this book when she is by herself thinking of her children that it is Anna and her happiness. Literally not a page.) while the girls are thrown around like martyrs just to tug at the audiences' heartstrings. Also, why does the brother exist at all? Are we just going to breeze over all that? It was stupid enough that he was doing everything he was but now we're going to go full bootlicker cop? Fuck off. The proto-fault-in-our-stars moment, while I acknowledge it happened before that book, you just know where it's going and it was again annoying to me that the author is trying so hard to make every moment a tragedy. Well I don't care about that boy he was a plot device that barely had a personality for like 5 pages and then died.

Also, when it comes to the topic of "designer babies" which it praises her for covering in the questions with the author at the end. I am disappointed that instead of even mentioning the real world problems, like eugenics, we just get this fantasy story. I don't see how it is very helpful to the national conversation when it ultimately sides with eugenicists and people who would selectively breed Kate out of existence (and the mother's lesbian sister). Not that I think this use was particularly justified, but non-political women reading chick-lit like this and forming opinions off it could be harmful. But at the end of the day, it isn't the author's ultimate responsibility. I guess.


]]> The Woman in Me 63132652 The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.]]> 6 Britney Spears 1797159518 Geoff 3 audiobook, nonfiction 3.90 2023 The Woman in Me
author: Britney Spears
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/26
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: audiobook, nonfiction
review:

]]> Under the Dome 6320534
When food, electricity and water run short, the normal rules of society are changed. A new and more sinister social order develops, Dale Barbara, a young Iraq veteran, teams up with a handful of intrepid citizens to fight against the corruption that is sweeping through the town and to try to discover the source of the Dome before it is too late...]]> 1074 Stephen King 1439148503 Geoff 0
@300 Okay I wrote the last bit then left and read a few pages and I'm already back. I just want to say again that 9 years old is like 3rd or 4th grade. In 4th grade I had read multiple of his novels and slapped a boy for cheating on me, not blabbering around in babytalk like a moron. She's annoying and fake.

@325 Done with the seizure thing. Over it. Overdone. This book is just a mashup of every book he's written and I say that in a mean way.

@336 Well just stopping by to say I've been shown that it was acually Sammy Bushey with the baby. Which is actually a majorly critical plot point so I don't know why we have less instances of King even mentioning her name than we do him trying to hammer home the point that The Chef is Mr. Bushey. It doesn't help that he's had every moderately youthful woman in this book insulted and called a big lesbian, by the same guy... I kind of assumed it was about the same girl. The nine year old just spelt friend "f-r-e-i-n" by the way. The fourth grader.

@423 is Dale a character to any of you? He's just not to me. We really don't know anything about him worth giving a shit about other than that he was in the military.. Which.. I don't give a shit about and isn't a replacement for a personality. Seriously, why is this book such a sloppy mishmash of all his other novels?

@516 Um... People called Sammy Bushey a nickname based on her last name in grade school? Bushey the Tushie? Was.. she married to Phil Bushey then as well? I thought he was the father of her baby? Are they just brother and sister? If so, who the fuck cares enough for him to tell us a billion times? No, I think he just didn't do a very good job with this book.

@659 Okay he's brought out the complete tonal shift and a bizarre change to the royal "we" to narrate. Since this book is entirely just re-hashings of his earlier work, I'm dubbing this the "Storm of the Century" bit.

@660 Immediately followed by King's usual can't help himself must must must use the words nubs/budding breasts to talk about any female child. Also, why does Romeo Burpee keep talking in racist pidgin English and then calling it French? I don't get why he has a Creole/Cajun accent yet they repeatedly just call it "French" like we won't know it's him doing the racist voice thing again? A la It. A la Mr. Mercedes...

@749 Wow, King really thought he had spent the book making us love Barbie and that we have been presented with a moral conundrum about him being horrible in the war.. Whatever, I'm accepting the metaphor, but you've really failed.

@753 Julia complains in exactly the way that struggled to draw true sympathy in "Mommy Dearest" and then has King's contractually required age gap sex with the man I just said I don't care about. You literally are all just ants.

@764 More sexual assault from this nothing character who came out of nowhere. One of the main character females wasn't sexually humiliated so.. had to make sure he got all of them. Also, I am not going to argue the point whether or not people in Maine usually use a nickname instead of their real name, but I will argue that a good writer should PICK ONE instead of flip flopping between their legal name, two nicknames, and some racist-accent-written-phonetically version. Also, maybe look at the names objectively and see how they look together? Rommie and Rennie? Why even set yourself up for that? It could've been cool if it was a direct Remus and Romulus nod... it's not. I do admire King's perseverance in the sense that he has the hindsight to see that his telepathy stuff only works when that is the whole point of the book, and when it is bizarrely thrown in it is a detriment. For example, The Stand and Cell. Both were amazing before that part and then The Stand was good but worse and Cell is... Cell is bad. Then he still had the nerve to add it here! For what! So that he could slide in this edgy Horton Hears a Who stuff? That's a Twilight Zone gag not a 900 page novel!

Also, how ridiculously reactionary do you have to be to consider this a woke novel? Or that it's about people becoming radicalized and liberal? You're even told he's a psychopath when you're inside his head, why are you on Jim Rennie's side because he's a cop? He's not even on the government's side... is it literally because Obama is explicitly the president? Like I saw a review talking about how Julia Shumway turns into a democrat. What, because she fucks a war criminal a decade younger than her? What part of that is liberal?

@end
Okay, he makes no legitimate political commentary here all things considered. Other than a general message begging to see other people as sentient people with feelings. The action when it got to the ending made it a lot more interesting to read, probably the only King book I've ever read where the ending was better than the rest of the book. I'm confused why he made such a big fuss about how intriguing and mysterious it was that the dome cut off on arbitrary human town borders... and then there was actually no intention or thought about it from the alien kids... so... um.. what? This book isn't good, the chracters aren't good, it spends way too much time introducing macho dudes to show you their sensitive side than it does nurturing pre-existing characters. All of the characters are King stereotypes too. Here's the goodreads list of characters and some of my associations for you.

(WIP)
Stephen King's Ever-repeating Cast!

Dale Barbara - As seen in The Stand (Stuart Redman), Hearts in Atlantis (Bobby Garfield), Desperation (Peter Jackson), Doctor Sleep (Danny Torrance), Cell (Clay Riddell), anything. Everything. This character is nothing. This character is a guy Stephen King thinks everyone would think is an alright dude. He has no personality other than being a veteran for men forced to go to Vietnam to take comfort in. And in Stephen King's usual "he's a republican (because everyone in Maine is legally required to be a republican in his books unless it is a sassy old woman or a young mom) but with a democrat's heart" shtick.
Julia Shumway - as seen in Mr. Mercedes (Olivia Trelawny), and don't get me started on the dog. I am frankly offended that none of the little doggy brains we saw into in this book called human females "bitchmasters" like in Gerald's Game. So I guess the dog from Gerald's Game was genuinely just like... a misogynist dog?
James "Big Jim" Rennie - as seen in The Talisman, The Stand, The Tommyknockers, Buick 8, The Dead Zone, Needful Things
Junior Rennie - As seen in It, The Dead Zone, Desperation (Here's the biggest baddest evilest guy around.. oh well he.. he just drops... forget about him..)
Eric "Rusty" Everett - as seen in Desperation, The Stand,
Linda Everett -
Joseph "Scarecrow Joe" McClatchey - As seen in literally every King short story collection ever made, Needful Things,
Brenda Perkins - As seen in Lisey's Story,
Frank DeLesseps - As seen in The Green Mile, as well as later in this book as Carter, made a separate character just to try to get the audience excited by killing him twice.
Carter Thibodeau - As seen in Needful Things,
Melvin Searles -
Georgia Roux -
Andy Sanders -
Phil "The Chef" Bushey - Oh my GOD. This character is The Trashman from The Stand. He was plucked out of that novel and dropped into this one with the same thirst for explosions and he did the exact same thing in this novel as he did in that one, he was just more of a meth addict than a pyromaniac. It also made zero in-book difference that he was related to Sammy Bushey and Little Walter. He is given a completely unrelated reason that he clearly articulates to want to strike back against Big Jim and his crew.
Peter Randolph -
Colonel Cox/Private Clint Ames (is there a meeeeaningful difference?) -
Aidan Patrick Appleton, Alice Rachel Appleton -
Thurston Martin - As seen in Desperation, Bag of Bones
Carolyn Sturges - As seen in Bag of Bones, Cell (Alice Maxwell), The Stand,
Romeo "Rommie" Burpee - As seen in The Shining (Dick Halloran, as well as all multiverse tie-ins to this character), The Black House (Henry Leyden), with nods to Mr. Mercedes (Jerome Robins), It (Richie Tozier voices)... Is Romeo black? I don't remember ever reading an actual physical description for him... I'm sure it was just at a part where there were a lot of characters to cover. How many times is King going to introduce either a child (who doesn't know any better...) or a black person... or a black child to do a racist voice so he can type it out? Why does that never stop being funny to him? Offensiveness aside. He also likes to include drawn-out scenes with absolutely hi-lar-i-ous imagery that aren't funny because we are reading a book. In this book, one of these scenes is the guy waddling around in football gear with lead sheets in it and how ridiculous that looks. Okay... had to be there, I guess.
Little Walter Bushey - As seen in The Tommyknockers, Mr. Mercedes, Cujo, Bag of Bones, Pet Sematary... Do you need me to list the characters here? It's the babies. It might seem a bit unfair, but these babies are solely introduced to the plot to be a device, and they only live if it's more tragic if they do. I suppose the Mr. Mercedes baby is actually more akin to the baby that gets run over during "Halloween".
Sammy Bushey - As seen in The Tommyknockers,
The Calverts Ft. Dead Dog -
Reverend Lester Coggins - As seen in Salem's Lot, Needful Things,
Reverend Piper Libby - As seen in Insomnia,
Ollie and the Dinsmore's - As seen in Needful Things,]]> 3.92 2009 Under the Dome
author: Stephen King
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/03
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: fiction, horror, police, stephen-king, sex-within
review:
@299 Stephen... you and me both know even YOU don't think kids act or speak like this. Also, you pissed me off with the rape shit again. The whole Angie part (I'm trying to remember her name from the lesbian part of the book, because even though she just dropped like a rock in the desert putting her kid's life in jeopardy... he hasn't said her name in a while so I am forgetting.) is typical King disrespect honestly. Piling on rape and something as insane as her being a high schooler arranging orgy trains on herself. That to me speaks to fantasy and lust being injected in there in a way that makes me sick, and I am really getting tired of it being a trope in his books to have a woman just like this. Grow the fuck up, already. But yeah, the 9 year old in 2015 is calling a full grown man "a fox". Mhmmm..... did everyone clap, Stephen? Did everyone say how in 20 years they could fuck nonstop? Must have took some restraint to leave that out.

@300 Okay I wrote the last bit then left and read a few pages and I'm already back. I just want to say again that 9 years old is like 3rd or 4th grade. In 4th grade I had read multiple of his novels and slapped a boy for cheating on me, not blabbering around in babytalk like a moron. She's annoying and fake.

@325 Done with the seizure thing. Over it. Overdone. This book is just a mashup of every book he's written and I say that in a mean way.

@336 Well just stopping by to say I've been shown that it was acually Sammy Bushey with the baby. Which is actually a majorly critical plot point so I don't know why we have less instances of King even mentioning her name than we do him trying to hammer home the point that The Chef is Mr. Bushey. It doesn't help that he's had every moderately youthful woman in this book insulted and called a big lesbian, by the same guy... I kind of assumed it was about the same girl. The nine year old just spelt friend "f-r-e-i-n" by the way. The fourth grader.

@423 is Dale a character to any of you? He's just not to me. We really don't know anything about him worth giving a shit about other than that he was in the military.. Which.. I don't give a shit about and isn't a replacement for a personality. Seriously, why is this book such a sloppy mishmash of all his other novels?

@516 Um... People called Sammy Bushey a nickname based on her last name in grade school? Bushey the Tushie? Was.. she married to Phil Bushey then as well? I thought he was the father of her baby? Are they just brother and sister? If so, who the fuck cares enough for him to tell us a billion times? No, I think he just didn't do a very good job with this book.

@659 Okay he's brought out the complete tonal shift and a bizarre change to the royal "we" to narrate. Since this book is entirely just re-hashings of his earlier work, I'm dubbing this the "Storm of the Century" bit.

@660 Immediately followed by King's usual can't help himself must must must use the words nubs/budding breasts to talk about any female child. Also, why does Romeo Burpee keep talking in racist pidgin English and then calling it French? I don't get why he has a Creole/Cajun accent yet they repeatedly just call it "French" like we won't know it's him doing the racist voice thing again? A la It. A la Mr. Mercedes...

@749 Wow, King really thought he had spent the book making us love Barbie and that we have been presented with a moral conundrum about him being horrible in the war.. Whatever, I'm accepting the metaphor, but you've really failed.

@753 Julia complains in exactly the way that struggled to draw true sympathy in "Mommy Dearest" and then has King's contractually required age gap sex with the man I just said I don't care about. You literally are all just ants.

@764 More sexual assault from this nothing character who came out of nowhere. One of the main character females wasn't sexually humiliated so.. had to make sure he got all of them. Also, I am not going to argue the point whether or not people in Maine usually use a nickname instead of their real name, but I will argue that a good writer should PICK ONE instead of flip flopping between their legal name, two nicknames, and some racist-accent-written-phonetically version. Also, maybe look at the names objectively and see how they look together? Rommie and Rennie? Why even set yourself up for that? It could've been cool if it was a direct Remus and Romulus nod... it's not. I do admire King's perseverance in the sense that he has the hindsight to see that his telepathy stuff only works when that is the whole point of the book, and when it is bizarrely thrown in it is a detriment. For example, The Stand and Cell. Both were amazing before that part and then The Stand was good but worse and Cell is... Cell is bad. Then he still had the nerve to add it here! For what! So that he could slide in this edgy Horton Hears a Who stuff? That's a Twilight Zone gag not a 900 page novel!

Also, how ridiculously reactionary do you have to be to consider this a woke novel? Or that it's about people becoming radicalized and liberal? You're even told he's a psychopath when you're inside his head, why are you on Jim Rennie's side because he's a cop? He's not even on the government's side... is it literally because Obama is explicitly the president? Like I saw a review talking about how Julia Shumway turns into a democrat. What, because she fucks a war criminal a decade younger than her? What part of that is liberal?

@end
Okay, he makes no legitimate political commentary here all things considered. Other than a general message begging to see other people as sentient people with feelings. The action when it got to the ending made it a lot more interesting to read, probably the only King book I've ever read where the ending was better than the rest of the book. I'm confused why he made such a big fuss about how intriguing and mysterious it was that the dome cut off on arbitrary human town borders... and then there was actually no intention or thought about it from the alien kids... so... um.. what? This book isn't good, the chracters aren't good, it spends way too much time introducing macho dudes to show you their sensitive side than it does nurturing pre-existing characters. All of the characters are King stereotypes too. Here's the goodreads list of characters and some of my associations for you.

(WIP)
Stephen King's Ever-repeating Cast!

Dale Barbara - As seen in The Stand (Stuart Redman), Hearts in Atlantis (Bobby Garfield), Desperation (Peter Jackson), Doctor Sleep (Danny Torrance), Cell (Clay Riddell), anything. Everything. This character is nothing. This character is a guy Stephen King thinks everyone would think is an alright dude. He has no personality other than being a veteran for men forced to go to Vietnam to take comfort in. And in Stephen King's usual "he's a republican (because everyone in Maine is legally required to be a republican in his books unless it is a sassy old woman or a young mom) but with a democrat's heart" shtick.
Julia Shumway - as seen in Mr. Mercedes (Olivia Trelawny), and don't get me started on the dog. I am frankly offended that none of the little doggy brains we saw into in this book called human females "bitchmasters" like in Gerald's Game. So I guess the dog from Gerald's Game was genuinely just like... a misogynist dog?
James "Big Jim" Rennie - as seen in The Talisman, The Stand, The Tommyknockers, Buick 8, The Dead Zone, Needful Things
Junior Rennie - As seen in It, The Dead Zone, Desperation (Here's the biggest baddest evilest guy around.. oh well he.. he just drops... forget about him..)
Eric "Rusty" Everett - as seen in Desperation, The Stand,
Linda Everett -
Joseph "Scarecrow Joe" McClatchey - As seen in literally every King short story collection ever made, Needful Things,
Brenda Perkins - As seen in Lisey's Story,
Frank DeLesseps - As seen in The Green Mile, as well as later in this book as Carter, made a separate character just to try to get the audience excited by killing him twice.
Carter Thibodeau - As seen in Needful Things,
Melvin Searles -
Georgia Roux -
Andy Sanders -
Phil "The Chef" Bushey - Oh my GOD. This character is The Trashman from The Stand. He was plucked out of that novel and dropped into this one with the same thirst for explosions and he did the exact same thing in this novel as he did in that one, he was just more of a meth addict than a pyromaniac. It also made zero in-book difference that he was related to Sammy Bushey and Little Walter. He is given a completely unrelated reason that he clearly articulates to want to strike back against Big Jim and his crew.
Peter Randolph -
Colonel Cox/Private Clint Ames (is there a meeeeaningful difference?) -
Aidan Patrick Appleton, Alice Rachel Appleton -
Thurston Martin - As seen in Desperation, Bag of Bones
Carolyn Sturges - As seen in Bag of Bones, Cell (Alice Maxwell), The Stand,
Romeo "Rommie" Burpee - As seen in The Shining (Dick Halloran, as well as all multiverse tie-ins to this character), The Black House (Henry Leyden), with nods to Mr. Mercedes (Jerome Robins), It (Richie Tozier voices)... Is Romeo black? I don't remember ever reading an actual physical description for him... I'm sure it was just at a part where there were a lot of characters to cover. How many times is King going to introduce either a child (who doesn't know any better...) or a black person... or a black child to do a racist voice so he can type it out? Why does that never stop being funny to him? Offensiveness aside. He also likes to include drawn-out scenes with absolutely hi-lar-i-ous imagery that aren't funny because we are reading a book. In this book, one of these scenes is the guy waddling around in football gear with lead sheets in it and how ridiculous that looks. Okay... had to be there, I guess.
Little Walter Bushey - As seen in The Tommyknockers, Mr. Mercedes, Cujo, Bag of Bones, Pet Sematary... Do you need me to list the characters here? It's the babies. It might seem a bit unfair, but these babies are solely introduced to the plot to be a device, and they only live if it's more tragic if they do. I suppose the Mr. Mercedes baby is actually more akin to the baby that gets run over during "Halloween".
Sammy Bushey - As seen in The Tommyknockers,
The Calverts Ft. Dead Dog -
Reverend Lester Coggins - As seen in Salem's Lot, Needful Things,
Reverend Piper Libby - As seen in Insomnia,
Ollie and the Dinsmore's - As seen in Needful Things,
]]> Slaughterhouse-Five 4981 Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.�

An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it.

Fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut's portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties.]]> 275 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Geoff 4
A lot of the low reviews on here drive me nutty. They genuinely just don't seem to understand the very simple ideas presented in this book and try to warp it to say Vonnegut is being needlessly pretentious and obtuse. It... is really not a hard book to understand. It is public knowledge that Vonnegut was a legitimate witness to the Dresden bombings and fought in the war he is describing. Maybe I am just hopelessly reading into his very difficult to understand symbolism, where he throws around absolutely unheard of ideas.. like "people are apathetic about death in war" and "war traumatizes people for life" and "war is carried out by children who don't realize the stakes they are in and have been led to believe they will all be heroes instead of corpses", but I think maybe being in the war might have affected the way Vonnegut wrote this story somewhat. Or is that a stretch?

People are critical in buffoonish ways just to push back because this novel is famous and they don't "get it" or they just don't find war novels very interesting.

At finish: TBA

@Full month after reading: I mean really.. what else is there to say? I kinda went off.]]> 4.10 1969 Slaughterhouse-Five
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1969
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/29
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: books-i-was-recc-d, fiction, humor-satire, sex-within, veterans-war, unreliable-or-villainous-narrators
review:
As reading: I think if you complain about "so it goes" in this book you're just actually stupid. He just says it after a death happens because that's the sort of apathetic reaction people truly have about war and death (otherwise they wouldn't be doing it). It's not that hard to grasp. If it seems like it happens a lot, well that's because death is happening a lot. It's making you notice it by your reaction to him saying it. Deep breaths. People are also very focused on him being "apathetic" like he is just doing it because he's stone cold, even though it is very clearly explained almost before the "and so it goes" really takes off. He believes that all time happens simultaneously so you don't need to be upset about people dying because they're still alive every other second of their lives, which is still happening. This story isn't jumping back and forth between times in his lives, he is. This is a founded opinion he has.

A lot of the low reviews on here drive me nutty. They genuinely just don't seem to understand the very simple ideas presented in this book and try to warp it to say Vonnegut is being needlessly pretentious and obtuse. It... is really not a hard book to understand. It is public knowledge that Vonnegut was a legitimate witness to the Dresden bombings and fought in the war he is describing. Maybe I am just hopelessly reading into his very difficult to understand symbolism, where he throws around absolutely unheard of ideas.. like "people are apathetic about death in war" and "war traumatizes people for life" and "war is carried out by children who don't realize the stakes they are in and have been led to believe they will all be heroes instead of corpses", but I think maybe being in the war might have affected the way Vonnegut wrote this story somewhat. Or is that a stretch?

People are critical in buffoonish ways just to push back because this novel is famous and they don't "get it" or they just don't find war novels very interesting.

At finish: TBA

@Full month after reading: I mean really.. what else is there to say? I kinda went off.
]]> Found 25980232 136 Todd Rigney Geoff 0 to-read 3.82 2015 Found
author: Todd Rigney
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries]]> 60041102 Two teens. Two diaries. Two social panics. One incredible fraud.

In 1971, Go Ask Alice reinvented the young adult genre with a blistering portrayal of sex, psychosis, and teenage self-destruction. The supposed diary of a middle-class addict, Go Ask Alice terrified adults and cemented LSD's fearsome reputation, fueling support for the War on Drugs. Five million copies later, Go Ask Alice remains a divisive bestseller, outraging censors and earning new fans, all of them drawn by the book's mythic premise: A Real Diary, by Anonymous.

But Alice was only the beginning.

In 1979, another diary rattled the culture, setting the stage for a national meltdown. The posthumous memoir of an alleged teenage Satanist, Jay's Journal merged with a frightening new crisis—adolescent suicide—to create a literal witch hunt, shattering countless lives and poisoning whole communities.

In reality, Go Ask Alice and Jay's Journal came from the same dark place: Beatrice Sparks, a serial con artist who betrayed a grieving family, stole a dead boy's memory, and lied her way to the National Book Awards.

Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries is a true story of contagious deception. It stretches from Hollywood to Quantico, and passes through a tiny patch of Utah nicknamed "the fraud capital of America." It's the story of a doomed romance and a vengeful celebrity. Of a lazy press and a public mob. Of two suicidal teenagers, and their exploitation by a literary vampire.

Unmask Alice . . . where truth is stranger than nonfiction.]]> 349 Rick Emerson 1637740425 Geoff 0 to-read 3.93 2022 Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries
author: Rick Emerson
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dune (Dune, #1) 44767458
When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.]]> 658 Frank Herbert 059309932X Geoff 0
@381
Funnily enough, I think my recent read of Slaughterhouse 5 is adding to the experience re: Paul's visions. Serendipity. ]]> 4.33 1965 Dune (Dune, #1)
author: Frank Herbert
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1965
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/18
shelves: currently-reading, books-i-was-recc-d, unreliable-or-villainous-narrators
review:
@207 Rare step in mid-book to say I'm having a grand time so far. If you've watched the new movies and they sparked a curiosity in reading the book and you're unsure if you'll like it, I recommend it! I've been told my whole life this book makes absolutely no sense if you're not high on coke but, at least with some of the baseline nouns and stuff retained from the movie and a so far pretty faithful adaptation (except mentats.. why on earth leave out mentats..), I've had no issue! I'm also a bit confused what they meant, because it seems to me to read almost exactly like a typical medieval royalty drama, just with a different setting and some new words (and an actually interesting plot). It is probably one of the best put books when describing its themes so far, it's very interesting. The quote on this page from Princess Irulan with Muad'Dib about truth just. Succinctly lays out and addresses the uncertainty about Paul's destiny with the religions being planted. I did not expect Vlad to um... want to wrestle Paul. That's.. I hear that's more of a thing later. We'll see about that.

@381
Funnily enough, I think my recent read of Slaughterhouse 5 is adding to the experience re: Paul's visions. Serendipity.
]]> Sociopath: A Memoir 176443093
Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing� felt.

She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with...something.

In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified—well over 200 years ago—sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters. Her future looked grim.

But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.

This is the inspiring story of her journey to change her fate and how she managed to build a life full of love and hope.]]> 368 Patric Gagne 166800318X Geoff 0 to-read 3.74 2024 Sociopath: A Memoir
author: Patric Gagne
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dinner on Monster Island: Essays]]> 83814909 Kirkus Reviews

"De Rozario transfixes ... a unique and touching account" -Publishers Weekly

"... a taut and riveting collection..." - The L.A. Times

"Poetic, almost incantory." -The British Columbia Review

***

In this unusual, engaging, and intimate collection of personal essays, Lambda Literary Award finalist Tania De Rozario recalls growing up as a queer, brown, fat girl in Singapore, blending memoir with elements of history, pop culture, horror films, and current events to explore the nature of monsters and what it means to be different.

Tania De Rozario was just twelve years old when she was gay-exorcised. Convinced that her boyish style and demeanor were a sign of something wicked, her mother and a pair of her church friends tried to “banish the evilâ€� from Tania. That day, the young girl realized that monsters weren’t just found in horror tales. They could lurk anywhere—including your own family and community—and look just like you. Ěý

Dinner on Monster Island is Tania’s memoir of her life and childhood in Singapore—where she discovered how difference is often perceived as deviant, damaged, disobedient, and sometimes, demonic. As she pulls back the veil on life on the small island, she reveals the sometimes kind, sometimes monstrous side of all of us. Intertwined with her experiences is an analysis of the role of women in horror. Tania looks at films and popular culture such asĚýCarrie, The Witch, ˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýThe RingĚýto illuminate the ways in which women are often portrayed as monsters, and how in real life, monsters are not what we think. Ěý

Moving and lyrical, written with earnest candor, and leavened with moments of humor and optimism,ĚýDinner on Monster IslandĚýis a deeply personal examination of one woman’s experience grappling with her identity and a fantastic analysis of monsters, monstrous women and the worlds in which they live.]]> 190 Tania De Rozario 0063299674 Geoff 0 to-read 4.17 2024 Dinner on Monster Island: Essays
author: Tania De Rozario
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> ’Salem’s Lot 11590 Librarian's Note: Alternate-cover edition for ISBN 0450031063

Thousands of miles away from the small township of 'Salem's Lot, two terrified people, a man and a boy, still share the secrets of those clapboard houses and tree-lined streets. They must return to 'Salem's Lot for a final confrontation with the unspeakable evil that lives on in the town.]]> 483 Stephen King 0450031063 Geoff 1 4.06 1975 ’Salem’s Lot
author: Stephen King
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1975
rating: 1
read at: 2021/01/20
date added: 2024/03/21
shelves: horror, don-t-bother, fiction, stephen-king, yawn
review:

]]> Coldheart Canyon 108051
As Todd settles into a mansion in Coldheart Canyon--a corner of the city so secret it doesn't even appear on any map--Tammy Lauper, the president of his fan club, comes to the City of Angels determined to solve the mystery of Todd's disappearance. Her journey will not be an easy one. The closer she gets to Todd the more of Coldheart Canyon's secrets she uncovers: the ghosts of the A-list stars who came to the Canyon for wild parties; Katya Lupi, the cold-hearted, now-forgotten star for whom the Canyon was named, who is alive and exquisite after a hundred years; and, finally, the door in the bowels of Katya's dream palace that reputedly open up to another world, the Devil's Country. No one who has ever ventured to this dark, barbaric corner of hell has returned without their sould shadowed by what they'd seen and done.

Mingling an insider's view of modern Hollywood with a wild streak of visionary fantasy, Coldheart Canyon is a book without parallel: an irresistible and unmerciful picture of Hollywood and its demons, told with all the style and raw narrative power that have made Clive Barker's books and films a phenomenon worldwide.]]> 686 Clive Barker 006103018X Geoff 0 to-read 3.72 2001 Coldheart Canyon
author: Clive Barker
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Damnation Game 34605 433 Clive Barker 0425188930 Geoff 0 to-read 3.84 1985 The Damnation Game
author: Clive Barker
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Guests 58106173
Guests is a collection of four novellas by Kealan Patrick Burke, complete with new introductions to each story and illustrations by the author himself. “Jack and Jill� is a harrowing story of childhood trauma and how the scars it leaves behind can manifest into adult-sized nightmares; “Sour Candy� is a twisted and unnerving tale of psychological terror that holds readers as captive as its characters; “Blanky� is an emotionally charged study of loss, grief and rage; and “Guests,� a brand new story exclusive to this collection, is a chilling exploration of what makes a monster, what makes us human, and how the weak will always run rather than face their own reflections.

In each of these four novellas, Burke shows us that real horror lies in life’s tragedies. Guests is Kealan Patrick Burke at his most hauntingly lyrical and original, with four fear inducing tales of terror that will leave readers breathless.]]> 424 Kealan Patrick Burke Geoff 0 to-read 4.01 2022 Guests
author: Kealan Patrick Burke
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Out There Screaming 142392376 Get Out, Us, and Nope, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions, curates this groundbreaking anthology of all-new stories of Black horror, exploring not only the terrors of the supernatural but the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our nation.

A cop begins seeing huge, blinking eyes where the headlights of cars should be that tell him who to pull over. Two freedom riders take a bus ride that leaves them stranded on a lonely road in Alabama where several unsettling somethings await them. A young girl dives into the depths of the Earth in search of the demon that killed her parents. These are just a few of the worlds of Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele’s anthology of all-new horror stories by Black writers. Featuring an introduction by Peele and an all-star roster of beloved writers and new voices, Out There Screaming is a master class in horror, and—like his spine-chilling films—its stories prey on everything we think we know about our world . . . and redefine what it means to be afraid.

Featuring stories by: Erin E. Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djèlí Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Justin C. Key, L. D. Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D. Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor, and Cadwell Turnbull.]]> 387 Jordan Peele 059324379X Geoff 0 to-read 3.77 2023 Out There Screaming
author: Jordan Peele
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1)]]> 6294 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here

Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl's castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there's far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.]]> 329 Diana Wynne Jones 006441034X Geoff 0 to-read 4.30 1986 Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1)
author: Diana Wynne Jones
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[They Came from Outer Space: 12 Classic Science Fiction Tales That Became Major Motion Pictures]]> 1928670 Dr. Cyclops / by Henry Kuttner --
Who goes there? / by John W. Campbell, Jr. --
Farewell to the master / by Harry Bates --
The fog horn / by Ray Bradbury --
Deadly city / by Ivar Jorgenson--
The alien machine / by Raymond F. Jones --
The cosmic frame / by Paul W. Fairman --
The fly / by George Langelaan --
The seventh victim / by Robert Sheckley --
The sentinel / by Arthur C. Clarke --
The racer / by Ib Melchior --
A boy and his dog / by Harlan Ellison.]]> 363 Jim Wynorski 0385185022 Geoff 1
Reviews by Story:

Dr. Cyclops / by Henry Kuttner 1 - Repeatedly refers to a mixed race hispanic man as "the half-breed". Legitimately stupid story not worth reading. Stupid plot, stupid character actions that make no sense, also despite them being small enough that they can use the blade of a pair of scissors as a sword they spot a monkey and say he was "larger to them than a gorilla" what, king fucking kong? But for real, half-breed is the only thing the author uses to refer to the guy. It's shit. Also, why is every animal in this story a fucking albino? Why the hell does it have to be an albino? So we trust its the same animal? Just infantile. I don't care if this was back when this type of writing was in its infancy, that just means that none of it is worth reading. It sucks. DNF

Stopped at this point to look up who the editor is. Seriously unimpressed (I make no moral comment on exploitation films but they're dogshit awful quality in terms of "trusting the directors taste level". On top of that, having a parody-based exploitation film? How gauche.) SIGH. Just wanted to read the Fly and the stupid dog rapey story my mom suggested. War is hell.

Who goes there? / by John W. Campbell, Jr. 31 - Alright starting point for a story. The Thing is refined and cooler in the Carpenter movie where it is less defined. Characters in this book don't matter at all. Red-herring-like plot twists when... why do they even exist. Too neat and tidy in the way old sci-fi wrap-ups fall short. I hate old sci-fi plots where the main thing we're supposed to be afraid of the *intelligence* of aliens. I feel like there's an element of racism/fear of the other to it that I don't have. Of course if a thing is evil and smart that sucks but... IDK.

Farewell to the master / by Harry Bates 91 - O_O Get out of the asbestos room! Only 2 ships ever built on Earth... one landed on Mars and one burned up in the Sun? They not give a shit about the moon?? Fine enough story, even if it fails my sci-fi sniff test.

The fog horn / by Ray Bradbury 133 - BTW I am definitely definitely skipping all the intros just so you know. I just don't care at all. Skipping rating this one because I've read it before in one of his short story collections. I will say that it is clearly not a good story to be made into a movie.

Deadly city / by Ivar Jorgenson 145 - Not how a woman acts. Pathetic attempt at romance. Misogynistic and macho pandering. Is this a translation? There are some weird clunky sentences and repeated ideas. Okay, the main character just ruminated about how his love interest is a whore but he wouldn't let it disgust him because there are no morals without society, but also he's a bad guy so he wouldn't mind if she was a whore. Shut up. Meanwhile our next door neighbor is clearly holding a woman hostage so that's waiting for us. No thanks. DNF. NEXT!

The alien machine / by Raymond F. Jones 191 -
Anyone else getting really scared by this one? I mean, they seem to live right where they work all ho-hum! Are they paid in company currency too!? Someone free them! Also, this engineer is bold as hell just putting unknown electrical components through the xray machine in an era where putting VHS tapes through xray wiped 'em clean!

The cosmic frame / by Paul W. Fairman 223 -
Fun story. I can't imagine watching a full-length movie of it but, still!

The fly / by George Langelaan 239 -
They're living on company property again! The horror!!! And they're French! Mon dieu! Mom is like, "Oh the boy's father would never stand for him doing any abuse of animals!" meanwhile the dad is like "Just a dog, love, not like it has a soul!" and tossing it in a woodchipper. Ay yi yi.

The seventh victim / by Robert Sheckley 275 -
Nice short story. Silly that he proposed marriage, but eh whatever.

The sentinel / by Arthur C. Clarke 293 -
Nice. Very lean.

The racer / by Ib Melchior 307 -
PTSD Speedrun! Record time! Absolutely ridiculous and stupid subplot romance addition. Stupid Hallmark nonsensical bullshit... Also, you really just can not write a short story about someone having a change of heart without just making them seem like a spineless idiot who somehow never heard about being a good person before.

A boy and his dog / by Harlan Ellison (recc'd by my mom... thanks ma) 321 -
Misogyny. Fake female character. Cool enough short story.]]> 4.03 1979 They Came from Outer Space: 12 Classic Science Fiction Tales That Became Major Motion Pictures
author: Jim Wynorski
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1979
rating: 1
read at: 2023/10/26
date added: 2024/01/11
shelves: books-i-was-recc-d, fiction, short-story-collections, don-t-bother, yawn
review:
Warning - I am not a classic sci-fi fan (I am being generous saying this. I do like sci- fi, like Bradbury and Asimov. The content in this book is dogshit to me) and am not the intended audience of this book. I have been asked to read it and am reviewing because I like to hear myself talk.

Reviews by Story:

Dr. Cyclops / by Henry Kuttner 1 - Repeatedly refers to a mixed race hispanic man as "the half-breed". Legitimately stupid story not worth reading. Stupid plot, stupid character actions that make no sense, also despite them being small enough that they can use the blade of a pair of scissors as a sword they spot a monkey and say he was "larger to them than a gorilla" what, king fucking kong? But for real, half-breed is the only thing the author uses to refer to the guy. It's shit. Also, why is every animal in this story a fucking albino? Why the hell does it have to be an albino? So we trust its the same animal? Just infantile. I don't care if this was back when this type of writing was in its infancy, that just means that none of it is worth reading. It sucks. DNF

Stopped at this point to look up who the editor is. Seriously unimpressed (I make no moral comment on exploitation films but they're dogshit awful quality in terms of "trusting the directors taste level". On top of that, having a parody-based exploitation film? How gauche.) SIGH. Just wanted to read the Fly and the stupid dog rapey story my mom suggested. War is hell.

Who goes there? / by John W. Campbell, Jr. 31 - Alright starting point for a story. The Thing is refined and cooler in the Carpenter movie where it is less defined. Characters in this book don't matter at all. Red-herring-like plot twists when... why do they even exist. Too neat and tidy in the way old sci-fi wrap-ups fall short. I hate old sci-fi plots where the main thing we're supposed to be afraid of the *intelligence* of aliens. I feel like there's an element of racism/fear of the other to it that I don't have. Of course if a thing is evil and smart that sucks but... IDK.

Farewell to the master / by Harry Bates 91 - O_O Get out of the asbestos room! Only 2 ships ever built on Earth... one landed on Mars and one burned up in the Sun? They not give a shit about the moon?? Fine enough story, even if it fails my sci-fi sniff test.

The fog horn / by Ray Bradbury 133 - BTW I am definitely definitely skipping all the intros just so you know. I just don't care at all. Skipping rating this one because I've read it before in one of his short story collections. I will say that it is clearly not a good story to be made into a movie.

Deadly city / by Ivar Jorgenson 145 - Not how a woman acts. Pathetic attempt at romance. Misogynistic and macho pandering. Is this a translation? There are some weird clunky sentences and repeated ideas. Okay, the main character just ruminated about how his love interest is a whore but he wouldn't let it disgust him because there are no morals without society, but also he's a bad guy so he wouldn't mind if she was a whore. Shut up. Meanwhile our next door neighbor is clearly holding a woman hostage so that's waiting for us. No thanks. DNF. NEXT!

The alien machine / by Raymond F. Jones 191 -
Anyone else getting really scared by this one? I mean, they seem to live right where they work all ho-hum! Are they paid in company currency too!? Someone free them! Also, this engineer is bold as hell just putting unknown electrical components through the xray machine in an era where putting VHS tapes through xray wiped 'em clean!

The cosmic frame / by Paul W. Fairman 223 -
Fun story. I can't imagine watching a full-length movie of it but, still!

The fly / by George Langelaan 239 -
They're living on company property again! The horror!!! And they're French! Mon dieu! Mom is like, "Oh the boy's father would never stand for him doing any abuse of animals!" meanwhile the dad is like "Just a dog, love, not like it has a soul!" and tossing it in a woodchipper. Ay yi yi.

The seventh victim / by Robert Sheckley 275 -
Nice short story. Silly that he proposed marriage, but eh whatever.

The sentinel / by Arthur C. Clarke 293 -
Nice. Very lean.

The racer / by Ib Melchior 307 -
PTSD Speedrun! Record time! Absolutely ridiculous and stupid subplot romance addition. Stupid Hallmark nonsensical bullshit... Also, you really just can not write a short story about someone having a change of heart without just making them seem like a spineless idiot who somehow never heard about being a good person before.

A boy and his dog / by Harlan Ellison (recc'd by my mom... thanks ma) 321 -
Misogyny. Fake female character. Cool enough short story.
]]> Waif 59221154
But the sight of a strange man in a grocery store one night reawakens her dormant sexuality and soon Angela embarks on a dangerous descent into the world of underground pornography and back-alley plastic surgery.

As the stakes get higher, long-buried memories resurface and Angela finds herself enamored with Reena, a fetish film performer. With some help from a queer gang called The Waifs, Angela is forced to make the decision between her unhappy upper-class life and the treacherous world of underground film.]]> 114 Samantha Kolesnik 1941918956 Geoff 0 to-read 3.54 2021 Waif
author: Samantha Kolesnik
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Touch the Night 55532466 MOTHER! MOTHER! RISE FROM THE GROUND!

Stranger Things and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre unite to form a blood-soaked matrimony of violence and corruption.

Something sinister’s hiding in the small town of Percy, Indiana, and twelve-year-old Joshua Washington and Alonzo Jones are about to find themselves up close and personal with it. After a harmless night of petty property damage leads to the unthinkable, the red and blue lights of a cop car are the last things these boys want to see. Especially a cop car driven by something not quite human.

Enter Mary Washington and Ottessa Jones. Their sons have been best friends for years, and now Josh and Alonzo have been abducted in the dead of night. Worst of all, the local sheriff refuses to believe they’re missing, leaving it up to Mary and Ottessa to take the law into their own hands before a family of ungodly lunatics can complete a ritual decades in the making.

Together they will embark on a surreal and violent journey into a land of corrupt law enforcement, small-town secrets, gravitational oddities, and ancient black magic.]]> 400 Max Booth III 158767758X Geoff 0 to-read 4.02 2020 Touch the Night
author: Max Booth III
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Universal Harvester 29939268
Jeremy works at the counter of Video Hut in Nevada, Iowa. It’s a small town—the first “a� in the name is pronounced ay—smack in the center of the state. This is the late 1990s, pre-DVD, and the Hollywood Video in Ames poses an existential threat to Video Hut. But there are regular customers, a predictable rush in the late afternoon. It’s good enough for Jeremy: It’s a job; it’s quiet and regular; he gets to watch movies; he likes the owner, Sarah Jane; it gets him out of the house, where he and his dad try to avoid missing Mom, who died six years ago in a car wreck.

But when Stephanie Parsons, a local schoolteacher, comes in to return her copy of Targets, starring Boris Karloff—an old movie, one Jeremy himself had ordered for the store—she has an odd complaint: “There’s something on it,� she says, but doesn’t elaborate. Two days later, Lindsey Redinius brings back She’s All That, a new release, and complains that there’s something wrong with it: “There’s another movie on this tape.�

So Jeremy takes a look. And indeed, in the middle of the movie the screen blinks dark for a moment and She’s All That is replaced by a black-and-white scene, shot in a barn, with only the faint sounds of someone breathing. Four minutes later, She’s All That is back. But there is something profoundly disturbing about that scene; Jeremy’s compelled to watch it three or four times. The scenes recorded onto Targets are similar, undoubtedly created by the same hand. Creepy. And the barn looks a lot like a barn just outside of town.

Jeremy doesn’t want to be curious. In truth, it freaks him out, deeply. This has gone far enough, maybe too far already. But Stephanie is pushing, and once Sarah Jane takes a look and becomes obsessed, there’s no more ignoring the disturbing scenes on the videos. And all of a sudden, what had once been the placid, regular old Iowa fields and farmhouses now feels haunted and threatening, imbued with loss and instability and profound foreboding. For Jeremy, and all those around him, life will never be the same . . .]]> 214 John Darnielle 0374282102 Geoff 0 to-read 3.18 2017 Universal Harvester
author: John Darnielle
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 13 Views of the Suicide Woods 31945207
Bracken MacLeod is the author of Mountain Home, White Knight, and, most recently, Stranded, which has been optioned by Warner Horizon Television. He lives in New England with his wife and son.]]> 280 Bracken MacLeod 177148411X Geoff 0 to-read 3.77 2017 13 Views of the Suicide Woods
author: Bracken MacLeod
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Intercepts 45868683 Joe works at a facility that performs human experimentation.
His work just followed him home.

The government wanted to unlock hidden abilities in the human mind.

They put subjects in extreme sensory deprivation.

All the test subjects went violently insane.

But the research continued.

Today it has been perfected.

Almost perfected.


From the author of In My Father's Basement comes another chilling novel that's a must-read for fans of horror. "Gruesome, gripping, and terrifyingly real!"]]> 327 T.J. Payne Geoff 0 to-read 4.11 2019 Intercepts
author: T.J. Payne
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> In My Father's Basement 42414147 A must-read psychological thriller for anyone who's fascinated by serial killers.

A 60-year old handyman goes on a murder-spree, abducting and torturing people with hand-tools.

After he's caught, the media wants to hear his story. What made this old man snap? Why did he do the horrible things he did? What really happened down there in his basement? The public fascination in The Handyman swells.

But he'll only tell his gruesome story to one person - his estranged son.

Full of dark twists and turns, In My Father's Basement is a father-son story like no other.]]> 293 T.J. Payne Geoff 0 to-read 3.87 2018 In My Father's Basement
author: T.J. Payne
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism]]> 9802336
In Cold Spring Harbour, New York, the newly formed Eugenics Records Office is sending its agents to catalogue the infirm, the insane, and the criminal—with an eye to a cull, for the betterment of all.

Near Cracked Wheel, Montana, a terrible illness leaves Jason Thistledown an orphan, stranded in his dead mother’s cabin until the spring thaw shows him the true meaning of devastation—and the barest thread of hope.

At the edge of the utopian mill town of Eliada, Idaho, Doctor Andrew Waggoner faces a Klansman’s noose and glimpses wonder in the twisting face of the patient known only as Mister Juke.

And deep in a mountain lake overlooking that town, something stirs, and thinks, in its way: Things are looking up.

Eutopia follows Jason and Andrew as together and alone, they delve into the secrets of Eliada—industrialist Garrison Harper's attempt to incubate a perfect community on the edge of the dark woods and mountains of northern Idaho. What they find reveals the true, terrible cost of perfection—the cruelty of the surgeon's knife—the folly of the cull—and a monstrous pact with beings that use perfection as a weapon, and faith as a trap.]]> 320 David Nickle 1926851110 Geoff 0 to-read 3.36 2011 Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism
author: David Nickle
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Demon Copperhead 60194162 "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver 0063251922 Geoff 5
I'm having a fine time reading the book so far, but any time she reminds me that it was written in 2022 and not.. oh, 2005 at the latest I raise my eyebrow a bit. It definitely reads like a book written by someone sheltered who has not experienced anything remotely like what is described... Like Mrs. Barks or some other social worker sat down piecing together true stories from people who'd been through it in a way that just feels. I don't know, like she's one of the women who believes some Ted Bundy is out to elaborately kidnap her at any given time. Driven too much by a fearful misunderstanding and pessimistic outlook towards subjects that veers towards obtuse. I do think it is thoughtful and I appreciate her using her voice to discuss the very real problems in this book, but I think it is clear when reading that she doesn't quite know what she's talking about. Some of the modernization is baffling too, do not give me that "before there were callouts" shit... It's like talking to your grandma, not Damon.

She has so far mainly curbed this issue by having it set in the past, which I'm grateful for. Phones in books mess shit up, and modernness often feels performatively pop culture (like the callouts comment). Then again, I've barely scratched the surface in page count, anything can happen.

@pg 332

If you're like me and don't give a shit about football, it is to your detriment for some passages. Yawn, jargon, bullshit.

@pg 437

"Oh we didn't have cable, so she just watched the free ones we got out in rinky dink nowhere." Then they mention a Disney channel show.... ha ha ha... ha ha ha....yeah sure. You are watching Jerry Springer or the news, man.

@ finish

It's good, it's a soap opera, it's hyperbolic fiction. Good read for fans of Wally Lamb. I have never read David Copperfield, so I didn't have that for comparison. I seem to enjoy it more than people who read David Copperfield, so who knows on that regard. Better than Poisonwood Bible with less eugenics at play. At times it is overly optimistic to real life in terms of interpersonal social justice, but very pessimistic in every other aspect. One of the better books I've read this year.

I feel like this book fights with itself in terms of tone and believability. All things considered, the pre-drug portion was a grim but believable plot. After that, it starts to get really high drama, and it uses some sequences that I have seen many times before. For example, whenever they go to a drug house and the first room they enter has children. I understand that this other media might not exactly have an Oprah's book club fanbase, but that same moment with the same beats of haunting and regret happens in both The Sopranos and Breaking Bad, which are two of the most popular shows ever. Another review here talked about not liking how unrealistic it was that a nurse would be wise to the oncoming opiod crisis, or that a black teacher would talk about race at an unfriendly time to do so. I have no problem with this. First of all, it's just one person and it's not actually that ridiculous that they'd get lucky and wise to it because of a boyfriend, or thankfully not snitched on by students to racist parents. Second of all, there's this thing called books that have to get messages across to you. Sometimes a character needs to do things as a plot device.

There are times when Kingsolver treats some of the women in ways that are just confusing to me. I understand that Demon has other things going on, but it felt like Emmy was just shoved to the side at a certain point only to be brought out for shock value. Rose is just a baffling cartoon witch. Some of Dori's arc just seemed mean spirited, like she was being punished for getting in the way of Angus and Demon's eventual relationship. There were a lot of times that Dori read like the pregnant girlfriend from Such Nice People by Sandra Scoppettone, which is a decidedly more hateful and unfavorable book to this type of person.

The whole Devil's Bathtub sequence.. that's really where the book just starts to get "how convenient" a lot. I'm also confused why so many things in this book that aren't important to me as a reader are explained even when it's strange that Demon would find out... but we don't get definitively told what was going to happen that day. You assume murder, I guess, but I don't really know why Fast Forward would want to kill him.

Also, I grew up in a town in Tennessee that didn't even have its own post office. I was surprised how long this whole bumpkin jokes are basically racism thing goes on and how deeply it offends them. I guess I was raised on media after that turning point, but Kingsolver makes it sound like it's an epidemic that is still raging. I flat out do not see offensive rural stereotypes that aren't hosted by some self-proclaimed redneck who lives the life anymore. I just don't see bumpkin characters at all. I also never knew a hick that gave a shit about it or got offended. Was this just a more impactful situation before Jeff Foxworthy stepped out there with his "You Might Be a Redneck" shit? Did that seriously turn the tide? Larry the Cable Guy? I really expected them to be mentioned at some point. Also, when does the end of this book take place that he was talking about that callout junk earlier? I thought we'd romp back up near present day but the last year I remember seeing was 2003, and that can't be right.

After you spend the whole book drudging through doom and gloom and him not understanding obvious signs when people around him care about him, the ending does feel a little scoffably unbelievable that he would be so optimistic. Guess it's love.]]> 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2023/12/29
shelves: fiction, recc-able, sex-within
review:
Written @ pg 156

I'm having a fine time reading the book so far, but any time she reminds me that it was written in 2022 and not.. oh, 2005 at the latest I raise my eyebrow a bit. It definitely reads like a book written by someone sheltered who has not experienced anything remotely like what is described... Like Mrs. Barks or some other social worker sat down piecing together true stories from people who'd been through it in a way that just feels. I don't know, like she's one of the women who believes some Ted Bundy is out to elaborately kidnap her at any given time. Driven too much by a fearful misunderstanding and pessimistic outlook towards subjects that veers towards obtuse. I do think it is thoughtful and I appreciate her using her voice to discuss the very real problems in this book, but I think it is clear when reading that she doesn't quite know what she's talking about. Some of the modernization is baffling too, do not give me that "before there were callouts" shit... It's like talking to your grandma, not Damon.

She has so far mainly curbed this issue by having it set in the past, which I'm grateful for. Phones in books mess shit up, and modernness often feels performatively pop culture (like the callouts comment). Then again, I've barely scratched the surface in page count, anything can happen.

@pg 332

If you're like me and don't give a shit about football, it is to your detriment for some passages. Yawn, jargon, bullshit.

@pg 437

"Oh we didn't have cable, so she just watched the free ones we got out in rinky dink nowhere." Then they mention a Disney channel show.... ha ha ha... ha ha ha....yeah sure. You are watching Jerry Springer or the news, man.

@ finish

It's good, it's a soap opera, it's hyperbolic fiction. Good read for fans of Wally Lamb. I have never read David Copperfield, so I didn't have that for comparison. I seem to enjoy it more than people who read David Copperfield, so who knows on that regard. Better than Poisonwood Bible with less eugenics at play. At times it is overly optimistic to real life in terms of interpersonal social justice, but very pessimistic in every other aspect. One of the better books I've read this year.

I feel like this book fights with itself in terms of tone and believability. All things considered, the pre-drug portion was a grim but believable plot. After that, it starts to get really high drama, and it uses some sequences that I have seen many times before. For example, whenever they go to a drug house and the first room they enter has children. I understand that this other media might not exactly have an Oprah's book club fanbase, but that same moment with the same beats of haunting and regret happens in both The Sopranos and Breaking Bad, which are two of the most popular shows ever. Another review here talked about not liking how unrealistic it was that a nurse would be wise to the oncoming opiod crisis, or that a black teacher would talk about race at an unfriendly time to do so. I have no problem with this. First of all, it's just one person and it's not actually that ridiculous that they'd get lucky and wise to it because of a boyfriend, or thankfully not snitched on by students to racist parents. Second of all, there's this thing called books that have to get messages across to you. Sometimes a character needs to do things as a plot device.

There are times when Kingsolver treats some of the women in ways that are just confusing to me. I understand that Demon has other things going on, but it felt like Emmy was just shoved to the side at a certain point only to be brought out for shock value. Rose is just a baffling cartoon witch. Some of Dori's arc just seemed mean spirited, like she was being punished for getting in the way of Angus and Demon's eventual relationship. There were a lot of times that Dori read like the pregnant girlfriend from Such Nice People by Sandra Scoppettone, which is a decidedly more hateful and unfavorable book to this type of person.

The whole Devil's Bathtub sequence.. that's really where the book just starts to get "how convenient" a lot. I'm also confused why so many things in this book that aren't important to me as a reader are explained even when it's strange that Demon would find out... but we don't get definitively told what was going to happen that day. You assume murder, I guess, but I don't really know why Fast Forward would want to kill him.

Also, I grew up in a town in Tennessee that didn't even have its own post office. I was surprised how long this whole bumpkin jokes are basically racism thing goes on and how deeply it offends them. I guess I was raised on media after that turning point, but Kingsolver makes it sound like it's an epidemic that is still raging. I flat out do not see offensive rural stereotypes that aren't hosted by some self-proclaimed redneck who lives the life anymore. I just don't see bumpkin characters at all. I also never knew a hick that gave a shit about it or got offended. Was this just a more impactful situation before Jeff Foxworthy stepped out there with his "You Might Be a Redneck" shit? Did that seriously turn the tide? Larry the Cable Guy? I really expected them to be mentioned at some point. Also, when does the end of this book take place that he was talking about that callout junk earlier? I thought we'd romp back up near present day but the last year I remember seeing was 2003, and that can't be right.

After you spend the whole book drudging through doom and gloom and him not understanding obvious signs when people around him care about him, the ending does feel a little scoffably unbelievable that he would be so optimistic. Guess it's love.
]]> Crash 70241 Crash explores the disturbing potentialities of contemporary society's increasing dependence on technology as intermediary in human relations.]]> 224 J.G. Ballard 0312420331 Geoff 0 to-read 3.62 1973 Crash
author: J.G. Ballard
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sula 11346 174 Toni Morrison 0452283868 Geoff 0 to-read 4.05 1973 Sula
author: Toni Morrison
name: Geoff
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mommie Dearest 374671
Christina was a young girl shown off to the world as a fortunate little princess. But at home, her lonely, controlling, even ruthless mother made her life a nightmare. A fierce battle of wills, their relationship could be characterized as an ultimately successful, for Christina, struggle for independence. She endured and survived, becoming the voice of so many other victims who suffered in silence, and giving them the courage to forge a productive life out of chaos.]]> 420 Christina Crawford 0966336909 Geoff 3
@177 - Okay, I know she is undergoing a very stressful situation but I balked aloud whenever she said "I wanted to jump out of the car but I didn't want to be shot, run over, or worse" Girl... let's all relax for a second the private detective was not going to SHOOT you...

@295 "I've made peace with my mother" In the nicest way possible, this book wouldn't exist if that were true.
Overall, she doesn't seem to know what details are important and what aren't. Some details are either boring and plucked from a diary to pad believability or bafflingly made up. I'm talking about smaller things, like stressing that it was warm and pretty out on any given day. Who cares if it was warm but there was AC? Or that she had a headache that didn't factor into the story at all?

I don't think this story is a fabrication. I do think that especially when it comes to the end of her mother's life, it is interesting how she flips back and forth between saying that her mother was incompetent and mentally out of control, and that she was conscious and vindictive with every action. The last bit of the story about her mother's celebration of life comes off as petty, like she is blaming her mother for the event.. and is upset that it wasn't about her. I understand she's family, but it seems to me she was far from the most grief-stricken one there...]]> 3.64 1978 Mommie Dearest
author: Christina Crawford
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1978
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/11
date added: 2023/12/19
shelves: books-i-was-recc-d, nonfiction
review:
Woah Christina let's not get homophobic! Touting your mothers' flaws and one of them is cohorting with homosexuals... why don't you suck a fat one in that regard? Blah blah blah she changes it in the new edition it was normal for the time blah blah, okay well it's not like we can blame it on her mother's upbringing. It is also an incredibly hateful and petty inclusion, especially among the charges it is lumped in with. She did enough wrong to her, she doesn't need to punch down on people to boost her cred.

@177 - Okay, I know she is undergoing a very stressful situation but I balked aloud whenever she said "I wanted to jump out of the car but I didn't want to be shot, run over, or worse" Girl... let's all relax for a second the private detective was not going to SHOOT you...

@295 "I've made peace with my mother" In the nicest way possible, this book wouldn't exist if that were true.
Overall, she doesn't seem to know what details are important and what aren't. Some details are either boring and plucked from a diary to pad believability or bafflingly made up. I'm talking about smaller things, like stressing that it was warm and pretty out on any given day. Who cares if it was warm but there was AC? Or that she had a headache that didn't factor into the story at all?

I don't think this story is a fabrication. I do think that especially when it comes to the end of her mother's life, it is interesting how she flips back and forth between saying that her mother was incompetent and mentally out of control, and that she was conscious and vindictive with every action. The last bit of the story about her mother's celebration of life comes off as petty, like she is blaming her mother for the event.. and is upset that it wasn't about her. I understand she's family, but it seems to me she was far from the most grief-stricken one there...
]]> On the Couch 933863 320 Lorraine Bracco 0425215105 Geoff 0 to-read 3.79 2006 On the Couch
author: Lorraine Bracco
name: Geoff
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>