Tuesday, April 25, 2023
REVIEW: These Deadly Words, by Nichole Heydenburg
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All Camille Monroe wants is a quiet place to work on her novel. Hoping for inspiration, she retreats to a cabin in Asheville, with only her dog Brody as company.
Leah Strauss thought the summer after high school graduation would be amazing, but when her boyfriend Vincent suffers an untimely loss, her dream of the perfect summer is destroyed. Attempting to cheer up Vincent, Leah’s twin sister Ava and her boyfriend Noah join them on a road trip.
When a snowstorm strikes the mountains while Leah and her friends are hiking, they struggle to find their campsite. After becoming lost in the woods, they stumble across a cabin and seek shelter from the storm.
As the days pass, the guests feel increasingly unsafe in the stranger’s cabin. Camille seems to know all their secrets, and she doesn’t want them to leave. Who is this dangerous writer and what does she want from them? Their biggest problem quickly becomes escaping the cabin alive.Fast-paced, quick-read, absolutely thrilling!
4 likeable teenagers, one lonely woman in a cabin who honestly seems not only harmless but likeable herself. The premise is believable--4 older teens out on a camping weekend get caught in a snow storm. It's a captivating story, and if I hadn't known this was a thriller, I wouldn't have imagined the turn it would take as I started reading.
The eerie atmosphere as the storm settles in and how easily Camille (the cabin owner) just lets them take over her space set me on a little bit of an edge. The dual point of view storytelling built the "anxiety" for me---which do I trust? Can I trust either of them? There was just an overall feel of Stephen King's Misery (which I know others noticed) and....it felt kinda old school horror-flick to me. Add all that to my feeling of claustrophobia on behalf of the characters!
Two or three little spots where I'm wishing there was more detail or information, but overall a book that will make me seek this author's work out.
REVIEW: No Two Persons, by Erica Bauermeister
No Two Persons
Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words, in turn, find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice’s novel; each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives.
Together, their stories reveal how books can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways—and how we are all more closely connected to one another than we might think
One book. One Author. Nine Readers. Ten reactions, ten responses, ten connections. Ten different ways the book spoke directly to them. It's a truly innovative and creative storytelling.
Bauermeister put into ten stories that which all readers know--we may read the same book, but we won't read the same story in it. That's the one of the most amazing thing about books, right?You and I will never respond to a book in the same way.
I enjoyed the different voices, each was unique and came from such different places. No character came across as flat, all were carefully crafted and multi-faceted. Each person was markedly changed by one book, written by a person who just needed to get the story out of her head and heart and on paper. I don't know that I've ever considered so carefully how a book speaks to its author before.
The most important voice, in my mind, is that of the book itself. Theo (the book in the stories) is honestly the main character, interacting with its author and each reader, ultimately connecting some the people who connected with it.
This is book club/literary club material. I highly recommend it, and am honestly heading over to pre-order a hardback copy for my shelf so I can revisit it again and again.
What do you think??
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from St. Martin's Press through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.Tuesday, April 4, 2023
REVIEW: Tell Me What Really Happened, by Chelsea Sedoti
There are stories about the woods around Salvation Creek, about the people who have gone missing. Now their friend is one of them. A riveting, fast-paced YA mystery told entirely through first person police interviews of four teens over the course of a few hours.
It was all her idea. They would get away from their parents and spend the weekend camping. Down by Salvation Creek, the five of them would make smores, steal kisses, share secrets.
But sometime around midnight, she vanished.
Now the four friends who came back are under suspicion―and they each have a very different story to tell about what happened in the woods.
The clock is ticking. What are they hiding? Who is lying? Dark truths must come to light if their friend is to be found...
Told entirely through first-person police interviews, this riveting mystery asks: what really happened that night?
I love a good thriller, and I love when it centers around a cast of characters that has a little something for everyone, like The Breakfast Club. Sedoti pulled that off quite well. Her character development is some of the best I've ever written and I could "hear" the voices quite quickly and easily in my head. This will make an amazing audiobook---and I'd love to see it as a movie.
Four unreliable narrators telling the story of a fifth in their party who has disappeared. All are guilty of something, but no one really knows what. There were twists and turns, and some expected bits, but overall, I was captured by this read and had to know just what happened to Maylee.
The storyline unfolds during the four separate, and long interrogations held in the police station. The quick change between narrators made the story move more quickly than a strictly linear telling would have. Often, in YA, there's a lot of "drama" that, for me as an avid YA reader, takes away from the story and characters. Not in this book. It was very like listening to my students talk about things, with the occasional asides that are related but not moving the story forward much. I was convinced right up until the end that I knew what had happened and who was to "blame." I was wrong.
Being YA, there is some language and a few sexual overtones--nothing overt or explicit, just touched on.
My only "eh" is regarding the ending. It seemed very abrupt to me, initially. I mean, we were rolling along and the pieces fell into place, and then....it was done. I don't normally go for an ending like this at all, but I think the fact that my minds keeps wandering to it and wondering how it played out made it work, probably as intended.
What do you think??
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from SOURCEBOOKS Fire through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.REVIEW: Someone is Always Watching, by Kelley Armstrong
Blythe and her friends — Gabrielle, and brother and sister Tucker and Tanya — have always been a tight friend group, attending a local high school and falling in and out of love with each other. But an act of violence has caused a rift between Blythe and Tucker . . . and unexpected bursts of aggression and disturbing nightmares have started to become more frequent in their lives.
The strange happenings culminate in a shocking event at school: Gabrielle is found covered in blood in front of their deceased principal, with no memory of what happened.
Cracks in their friendship, as well as in their own memories, start appearing, threatening to expose long-forgotten secrets which could change the group’s lives forever. How can Blythe and her friends trust each other when they can’t even trust their own memories?
What do you think??
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Penguin Random House Canada/Tundra Books through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.Saturday, April 1, 2023
REVIEW: The Eden Compound, by L. Blaise Hues
Star-student Kathryn Speer has her future all planned out until Shardul comes to the school. Since she’s competing with him for top marks, she can’t decide if she should despise or date him.When Kathryn’s rich uncle extends an invitation to study genetically modified tigers at his compound, Kathryn sees it as an opportunity to impress Shardul and give her a leg up on college applications.Then Shardul goes missing, and her GPA suddenly loses its importance as she considers using her skills and the tools at The Eden Compound to find Shardul and bring him home.But once she’s there, she realizes he’s not the only one in real danger.
What do you think??
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from the author through the BookSirens author/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.Creative Commons
This work is licensed by Jennifer Turney under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.