Too Long; Didn't Read

I’d been really anticipating the release of  One Dark Throne  since I finished the first book in the series,  Three Dark Crowns , last year, and I was not disappointed.  **Obvious Spoilers for Three Dark Crowns Ahead!**  The story jumps back into the three-sisters-competing-for-the-crown-by-trying-to-murder-each-other action immediately, no building back up steam or filler fluff. I liked how Blake was able to slip in reminders about certain plot points of  Crowns  to jog my memory, without it feeling like I was reading a Wiki summary of the book.  We start right back up with Arsinoe, who is exploring her true gift of Poison secretly so she won’t be shunned by the Naturalists and claimed by the Poisoners; Mirabella, who is heartbroken that her sisters do not remember and love her as she does them, and still reeling from Arsinoe attacking her with a bear (a misunderstanding that is fairly quickly cleared up); and Katherine, who crawled out of ...

Oh,  Blood Memory Society , how did I loathe thee? Let me count the ways… I chose this book as my next read based solely on the short description,  “What if you could inherit your ancestors' memories? What implications would such an inheritance have on society?”  and boy, did I spend the next 350+ pages lamenting my life choices. The book opened simply with,  “Death and a dime bag,”  and went downhill from there…fast. Reading this book was like eating cauliflower; it was bland, tedious, and made no impression on me. I had gotten three chapters in—during which a mysterious fertility clinic was bombed and over 20 employees at a lab were deathly poisoned…you’d think that would be an exhilarating three chapters—before I even realized that I had no interest in the story at all and jotted down, “dull and unengaging” in my notes. The story follows “lucky sperm club” member Will, who, at 32, is already an accomplished fertility doctor, West Point graduate, exper...

The first thing I have to say about Sleep Over: An Oral History of the Apocalypse (hereafter referred to as ” Sleep Over ”) is that I genuinely have no idea why I requested to read it. As a reluctant gift recipient of short stories/anthologies/essays/collections et al., I don’t seek out books that lack a cohesive, consistent storyline throughout. So, why I chose to read a book that is quite literally nothing more than a collection of narratives through dozens of viewpoints, all relating to the same period of time, is beyond me. The second thing I have to say about Sleep Over is that I am genuinely thrilled that I requested to read it. Sleep Over is a collection of first-hand stories by survivors of the event/plague/situation that almost eradicated humanity—no, it’s not nuclear war or SARS or global warming…it’s insomnia. What you may assume could pose no greater threat than irritability and malaise, insomnia is actually quite terrifying and insidious when observed through a mor...

I approached The Lying Game with a great deal of trepidation—you see, Ruth Ware has hurt me before. When our relationship was in the honeymoon phase of In a Dark, Dark Wood, it was all smart dialogue this and taut suspense that. But of course, the honeymoon had to end sometime. And end it did with The Woman in Cabin 10…I wasted the best 384 pages of my life on that far-fetched snooze-fest. Needless to say (but I will anyway), I started this book with a healthy dose of cynicism and a dash of hope. The Lying Game presents itself as a mystery/thriller, and I have to admit my interest was piqued faster than it took Bob the dog to find that telltale body part in the Reach and kick off the world’s most depressing reunion. We’re introduced to Kate, Thea, Fatima, and, our feckless narrator and lead protagonist, Isa when Isa receives a 3:30 am text from Kate that simply says, “I need you.” Ware subtly reveals the nature of the group’s dynamic with a haunting, but resolute, observation: S...

Let me level with you from the start…I initially requested an advanced copy of Disturbed because I really liked the cover. Of course, I did subsequently read the description and it only reaffirmed my decision. A lone survivor of a brutal college massacre? On Halloween night? The killer was never caught? The girl (naturally) is still suffering from paranoia? Five years later she receives a mysterious note bearing the same message left behind at the original crime scene? Sign me up. See, sometimes you can judge a book by its cover! Since this book has not yet been released, I’ll do my best to refrain from spoiling it for anyone who’s just looking for enough broad strokes and insight to determine whether it’s 238 pages well-spent. (Mini) Spoiler Alert: It is. But that’s not to say it’s not without its faults—one huge one, in particular. There are some books that take a while to formulate an opinion about, and some that just hook—or repel—you from page one. The book opens on the ni...