chuckstafer's reviews
350 reviews

The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What a fun tale this was! I started reading this book in the nineties after I stole it off my mom's bookshelf because it had a cool dragon picture on the cover and just never got around to finishing it until now.

The Eyes of the Dragon had all the usual medieval/fantasy components that you would expect (dragons, magicians, mythical creatures, mead, swordplay, betrayal, drunken kings, and large castles), but it was told in a way that was really fun. The narrator's way of telling the story was engaging and I loved that this was such a departure from King's usual novels. Side note: The audiobook narrator was AMAZING! 

They Lurk by Ronald Malfi

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 Not too shabby! The copy of this short story connection I picked up only had 4 stories included for some reason, but they were all pretty good! I will say though, that I thought “Skullbelly” & “Separation” were good stories, but paced a little odd for my taste. I thought they had too much buildup and background, only to have an extremely rushed conclusion. “The Stranger” was very dark and gross & even though the concept depicted in “After The Fade” wasn’t super original, it was executed very well. Overall it was a good collection of stories.

EDIT
I was able to get my hands on a newer copy of They Lurk which included the additional " Fierce" short story and I thought that story was wonderful! Expertly paced, graphic, and raw, and I loved how it weaved two related stories together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty

Knight's Wyrd by James D. Macdonald, Debra Doyle

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Boy howdy does Will Odosson get himself into lots of trouble! 

I picked this book up in the mid-nineties as a kid and started reading it and never got a chance to finish it before I lost my copy. So glad to finally be able to finish it all these years later! I was worried that the "hype" built up over all these years would be too much and the novel would fall short, but it was a very entertaining read full of action, magic, and mythical beast aplenty. The novel starts off fast and doesn't let its foot off the pedal until the very end. 

Black Vault by Alma Katsu

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Pretty good little detective/mystery novel about CIA coverups involving aliens. I will say this was not my favorite Alma Katsu novel/novella I've read, but it was still good. This short story progressed fairly quickly with prose that did keep you engaged throughout. The ending is fairly open-ended which does leave a bit of mystery on the table, but enough loose-ends are tied up that it doesn't feel like an unfinished story or anything like that. 

Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck

challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I was hesitant to read this novel because I don’t usually gravitate towards romance or love books, but the concept of someone turning into a shark certainly piqued my interest. This book was wonderful! It was full of heart, unique prose, and familiar landmarks (the novel centers around north Texas and Oklahoma where I have lived my whole life), and left me wanting more! I enjoyed how the story was broken up into 3 parts to tell the entire story of not only Wren and Lewis’ love, but the full story of Wren’s childhood and what happened to her mother as well as a glimpse into the future. The author’s way of adding screenwriting prose into the novel as well was a really nice touch to tie in Lewis’ love of the theatre and I thought it was really neat. 

Rose/House by Arkady Martine

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Meh

Dark Warm Heart by Rich Larson

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Come Closer by Sara Gran

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Ooooh this one was creepy, disturbing, and sinister right from the start. I really enjoyed it! 

The Endless Vessel by Charles Soule

dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This story unfolded about 0% how I expected it to, but not in a bad way! This was way more Science Fiction than I assumed it would be (I think I read the description wrong haha). I still read a compelling thriller about one woman setting out to try and help the world but also got a really neat historical fiction about a secret society and some multidimensional travel across other realms. Very fascinating concept the author presented here. 

The bad guys in the story were despicable and their actions were shocking, but I also couldn't wait to hear what they were going to do next. 

The only thing I felt wasn't executed quite as well is that the ending of the story felt kind of rushed for my taste, but the author did do a great job of leaving things a bit open-ended so that you could come up with your own theory about what happened to the characters. 

All-in-all I did really enjoy this novel and would highly recommend it to my fellow sci-fi readers!

The Bone Lantern by Angela Slatter

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Wonderful novella! I picked this one out to read due to it winning the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novella in 2022 and it did not disappoint one bit! The prose was beautiful, the story was engaging, and left me wanting more. Highly recommend to anyone in search of a quick read and some good revenge stories.