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jamieleepilk's reviews
611 reviews
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Thank you so much Manilla Press/Bonnier Books for sending me the proof copy.
UK Release 13th of February.
Lenore has moved into her new Sheffield estate with her husband of ten years. She is tasked with making the house fit for a shooting party in a few weeks but when a woman enters her life she will awaken something deep within Lenore that is hard to ignore.
I loved this! This is my first time reading anything by Kat Dunn and I was instantly pulled in by her writing style and prose. While dealing with difficult and heart wrenching topics Kat's writing is effortless to fall into. Lenore is an instantly relatable character. Her frustrations and then rage is written beautifully and believable as she deals with her own self doubt. The novel focuses on her relationships with her husband Henry, her "friend" Cora and Carmilla.
I really loved her contrast between Lenore and Carmilla. Lenore at the start represents a softness where as Carmilla is all edges, it kind of made me wish that we got Carmilla POV chapters but I very much understand why we didn't as this is Lenore's story to tell.
Without saying spoilers Lenore deals with a type of pain, the way this is written really grapples with the struggles of those with chronic pain so well.
Do I wish there were more of the vampire elements? Yes. Do I understand why it didn't go that far? Also yes.
UK Release 13th of February.
Lenore has moved into her new Sheffield estate with her husband of ten years. She is tasked with making the house fit for a shooting party in a few weeks but when a woman enters her life she will awaken something deep within Lenore that is hard to ignore.
I loved this! This is my first time reading anything by Kat Dunn and I was instantly pulled in by her writing style and prose. While dealing with difficult and heart wrenching topics Kat's writing is effortless to fall into. Lenore is an instantly relatable character. Her frustrations and then rage is written beautifully and believable as she deals with her own self doubt. The novel focuses on her relationships with her husband Henry, her "friend" Cora and Carmilla.
I really loved her contrast between Lenore and Carmilla. Lenore at the start represents a softness where as Carmilla is all edges, it kind of made me wish that we got Carmilla POV chapters but I very much understand why we didn't as this is Lenore's story to tell.
Without saying spoilers Lenore deals with a type of pain, the way this is written really grapples with the struggles of those with chronic pain so well.
Do I wish there were more of the vampire elements? Yes. Do I understand why it didn't go that far? Also yes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Death of parent
Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
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
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy
Goodlord by Ella Frears
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.25
BLOB by Maggie Su
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3.5 rounded up 🌟
Thank you Harper/ Sceptre for the Advanced Copy in exchange for an honest review.
A weird little "love" story about a woman who after a recent break up finds a blob on the street outside a bar. After she takes him home she quickly realises she could possibly mould him into the perfect man.
The story centres on Vi - as much as this is marketed as a love story it's very much just fragments of Vi's life that explains why she is the way she is. Vi is extremely unlikeable but a great POV to read from. She's a storm of contradictions. A lot of this book is made up of flashbacks of Vi growing up, first crushes, life with her family and her ex.
There was a really strong message about being human, what it means to be human. Especially how love can shape a person for better or worse.
For me this story had a really strong start but at 250 pages there just wasn't enough of the Blob/Bob character and Vi having any sort of narrative that moved the narrative forward, with the story often going in circles until it felt rushed towards the end. This wasn't as weird or as romantic as I thought it would be - I'd definitely read future things from Maggie as her style of writing is gripping and I enjoyed her sense of humour.
Thank you Harper/ Sceptre for the Advanced Copy in exchange for an honest review.
A weird little "love" story about a woman who after a recent break up finds a blob on the street outside a bar. After she takes him home she quickly realises she could possibly mould him into the perfect man.
The story centres on Vi - as much as this is marketed as a love story it's very much just fragments of Vi's life that explains why she is the way she is. Vi is extremely unlikeable but a great POV to read from. She's a storm of contradictions. A lot of this book is made up of flashbacks of Vi growing up, first crushes, life with her family and her ex.
There was a really strong message about being human, what it means to be human. Especially how love can shape a person for better or worse.
For me this story had a really strong start but at 250 pages there just wasn't enough of the Blob/Bob character and Vi having any sort of narrative that moved the narrative forward, with the story often going in circles until it felt rushed towards the end. This wasn't as weird or as romantic as I thought it would be - I'd definitely read future things from Maggie as her style of writing is gripping and I enjoyed her sense of humour.
Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
My good god this was so good!
Bat Eater follows Cora Zeng who has literally just seen her sister get brutally murdered in front of her. Cora begins working as a crime scene cleaner but when a pattern of dead asian women starts to emerge, Cora and her co-workers Harvey and Yifei set out to get to the bottom of it while dealing with hungry ghosts roaming the city!
I absolutely loved this! I haven't read anything by Kylie before and I was instantly hooked by her writing style. This novel is the perfect blend of Horror, Social Commentary and Thriller but beautifully blended with a dark sense of humour threaded throughout.
This novel deals a lot with racism towards the asian community, focusing on the start of the covid outbreak. With all the different aspects of the story, covid, murders, hungry ghosts etc I was worried to begin with that there would be too many elements and it would get confusing but all the fractions worked so well together often enhancing the stories as storylines overlapped. The horror parts of this novel were incredible, the imagery of the hungry ghosts was intense and had me turning the pages so fast. Something I really liked about this novel is the way Kylie wrote about the sisters, Cora obviously loved her sister but wasn't afraid to "speak ill of the dead" as the novel puts it - some-one doesn't stop being a dick just because they are dead right?
This is a gory and harrowing read that kept me hooked from page one, my copy is so highlighted it's actually silly. Thank you to Hodder for the proof - what a way to start the reading year!
Bat Eater follows Cora Zeng who has literally just seen her sister get brutally murdered in front of her. Cora begins working as a crime scene cleaner but when a pattern of dead asian women starts to emerge, Cora and her co-workers Harvey and Yifei set out to get to the bottom of it while dealing with hungry ghosts roaming the city!
I absolutely loved this! I haven't read anything by Kylie before and I was instantly hooked by her writing style. This novel is the perfect blend of Horror, Social Commentary and Thriller but beautifully blended with a dark sense of humour threaded throughout.
This novel deals a lot with racism towards the asian community, focusing on the start of the covid outbreak. With all the different aspects of the story, covid, murders, hungry ghosts etc I was worried to begin with that there would be too many elements and it would get confusing but all the fractions worked so well together often enhancing the stories as storylines overlapped. The horror parts of this novel were incredible, the imagery of the hungry ghosts was intense and had me turning the pages so fast. Something I really liked about this novel is the way Kylie wrote about the sisters, Cora obviously loved her sister but wasn't afraid to "speak ill of the dead" as the novel puts it - some-one doesn't stop being a dick just because they are dead right?
This is a gory and harrowing read that kept me hooked from page one, my copy is so highlighted it's actually silly. Thank you to Hodder for the proof - what a way to start the reading year!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic
A Scarab Where the Heart Should Be by Marieke Bigg
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Susanna Clarke owns my heart. She's been an auto-buy author for me since reading 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell' years ago which became one of my favourite books of all time. 'The Wood at Midwinter' is a short tale set within the same universe as Strange & Norrell focusing on 19year old Merowdis a young woman who can talk to animals as she enters a wood & her life changes forever. This is such a charming little tale, that truly shows Susanna's ability as a storyteller. And the afterword made me cry.
Idle Grounds by Krystelle Bamford
Thank you so much for the proof copy Hutchinson & Heinemann.
"In short, it's hard to be sad about someone being dead when they were never really alive in the first place."
Well that was a ride.
I know the phrase "unlike anything I've ever read" gets thrown around a lot but seriously, I don't think I've read anything like this before.
I've never read a book that's so sinister and unsettling but also incredibly but darkly funny.
Krystelle truly writes towards her own language and style that creates such a unique and weird setting that you can't help but be drawn in. With the foreword comparing the family to the Romanovs I was hooked instantly. Bamford deals with dark subjects really well, with her dark whimsical style I thought the two wouldn't mesh but they do and if anything it adds to the unsettling nature of the novel.
For most of the novel you're not too sure what's going on but I had total faith on whatever ride Krystelle was taking me on.
I am obsessed with how she describes the forest, to the point it almost feels like an additional character with its own motivations.
UK Release 17/04/25
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Thank you so much for the proof copy Hutchinson & Heinemann.
"In short, it's hard to be sad about someone being dead when they were never really alive in the first place."
Well that was a ride.
I know the phrase "unlike anything I've ever read" gets thrown around a lot but seriously, I don't think I've read anything like this before.
I've never read a book that's so sinister and unsettling but also incredibly but darkly funny.
Krystelle truly writes towards her own language and style that creates such a unique and weird setting that you can't help but be drawn in. With the foreword comparing the family to the Romanovs I was hooked instantly. Bamford deals with dark subjects really well, with her dark whimsical style I thought the two wouldn't mesh but they do and if anything it adds to the unsettling nature of the novel.
For most of the novel you're not too sure what's going on but I had total faith on whatever ride Krystelle was taking me on.
I am obsessed with how she describes the forest, to the point it almost feels like an additional character with its own motivations.
UK Release 17/04/25