mmccombs's reviews
674 reviews

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.25

That was so much fun! This was a page turner and full of heart, it made me feel hopeful about humanity’s ability to come together to innovate in the face of insurmountable odds (feels very fictional but hey, a girl can dream). It was a great balance of nerdy and action, though I feel like some of the science got too in the weeds and started to feel unrealistic (I’m not an astrophysicist but I’d still love to know how factual things were). This is like the perfect book for people learning about the scientific method, the whole plot was basically like making a hypothesis, testing and retesting, and then drawing conclusions from your observations. And somehow I felt like this book could have kept going! I’m curious to see how this will work as a movie, it does not seem like the easiest thing to adapt, but I hope it will capture the earnestness, the hope, and the love of science this book provided!

As a super side note, I do feel as though there had to be a simpler way to go about solving this problem. If they had so many scientists dedicated to building this giant space mission, could they not have just spent the time figuring out how to kill the Astrophage on a mass scale (because they already figured out how they die) without having to find the specific thing that was working on that specific planet light years away? Also, what if the astrophage predator ends up causing a different issue, idk! The story was very fun so this doesn't matter, but I was kind of like, damn, I really feel like they had the brain power to fix this on their own!
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From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley, Riley Keough

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emotional informative reflective fast-paced

3.5

This was well done if a bit too short (but I think its level of depth generally made sense for the story it was telling). I really knew nothing about Lisa Marie Presley going into this, and am really only a casual Elvis enjoyer, so I learned a lot from this. The narration was really well done, I loved that we got to hear from Lisa Marie herself, Julia Roberts was good as always, and Riley Keough brought a wonderful perspective on her mother to shed some lightness and grace to her story that she couldn’t see herself. I don’t leave this wowed necessarily, but I think it provided an insightful snapshot of her life, of growing up in the shadow of fame, and the impact of addiction and depression on generations of a family just trying their best. 
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Lucy Undying by Kiersten White

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dark funny slow-paced

3.5

This was two books! Which is disappointing because I really loved one book (a queer Dracula retelling) and mostly didn’t care for the other (romance and a cult). I loved Lucy’s story, it was sweeping and historical and tackled interesting themes about bodily autonomy, desire, and queerness. She was a fun character to follow, she definitely read as a person who had been 19 for probably too long, which is always hard to capture. And I do think the modern romance worked, love that for her! 

But the layering of the modern storyline on top made for an overly long, complicated, and significantly less fun story. Iris was fine,
a vampire cult in Utah is a funny idea (though I think it could have been executed better with more space)
, and I think the match between Iris and Lucy was sweet enough if kind of cheesy. But the constant POV shifts made it difficult to settle into either narrative fully, I was much more invested in Lucy and always felt mildly annoyed when we left. And then the Dracula storyline is also there, which I think would have made more sense to have explored more deeply to contrast against Lucy and the themes her story brings up, rather than making up a new conflict. Whatever happened, I do think I would have wanted Lucy to find herself and a great sapphic love, but I’m unsure if adding such a big storyline on top of another made sense. Despite it feeling pretty bloated, I still enjoyed reading this and thought the writing was engaging, the character work for Lucy well rounded, and the retelling worth the read.
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Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I absolutely loved this book! I would not say this is really horror, which might be disappointing if you’re expecting that, it is more dark, quiet literary fiction with slightly more blood and freaky little monsters than you’d normally find. This book beautifully layered themes of grief, belonging, and what happens when we force people to be something they are not. I liked that we got multiple different POVs to fully understand how they each dealt with the grief of losing a child (and growing in that child’s shadow),a mix of sorrow and madness and nothing at all. It was a creative spin on a fairly straightforward narrative, I really enjoyed it.
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Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson

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dark medium-paced

3.5

I think it was a mistake to read this via audiobook, these stories were all about subtlety and small twists that I think I missed by listening. I’m a big fan of her writing style and this collection was perfectly atmospheric and dark, but listening did them a disservice. I do think her longer fiction will remain my favorite, allowing that subtlety to stretch and culminate in interesting ways, but these short stories were solid.
The Haar by David Sodergren

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dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

That was nuts! Very dark, very gory, very fun to read. I loved that it explored more layered themes of grief for loved ones, your past, and your home, but I also loved that it was just very spooky horror. The setting was perfect, and the audiobook narration definitely helped. I love horror novels (and many other stories) that feature old women as the main character, it made for a real depth in her character which then deepened her relationship with the sea creature. It was like pretty romantic?? Which was unexpected but I loved it. Definitely a solid and quick read perfect for Halloween! Eat the rich (literally and in the most gruesome way possible, please)!
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I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

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dark tense slow-paced

3.5

You either like SGJ’s writing style or you hate it, and this book was probably the most aggressively SGJ-style of his books I’ve read. I’d say what I love about SGJ’s books was very evident here: there is a real heart to the characters despite the gruesome story, I loved Tolly and Amber and how this was really just a love story in the end, despite the roles they were pushed into. But this book also had the things that I struggled with in his books, namely the writing style. It was just incredibly casual, meandery, and full of tangents, which definitely filled out Tolly’s character, but also reduced clarity and plot momentum. This felt like work to get through, I had to read it physically and via audio because I was just so bored and had a hard time feeling compelled to get back to it. Other than the very beginning, there is not much action, and I never really bought into the magic slasher rules, though I do like how this flipped slasher tropes in new ways. I do think with some distance I will find more things to love about this story, but my most immediate reaction is that I’m glad it’s over. 
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If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 2%.
The prologue just immediately felt icky, I don’t imagine the main character will earn my attention.
Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 1%.
Immediately a dnf, I just cannot listen to this narration. I get that it’s a kid’s POV, but like… did it have to sound like that?? Grating!
The September House by Carissa Orlando

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dark funny reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

I really loved this! The tone was both goofy and pretty dark at the same time, which can be challenging to balance but was done well in this instance. I listened to this via audio and I think the narrator (at 2.25x speed) perfectly captured Margaret’s voice, like foolishly stubborn, very compassionate, and yearning for a place to call her own. Margaret’s characterization was just very strong, she was so well rounded and made me wish this book kept going to spend more time with her (bleeding walls notwithstanding).

The allegory here for domestic violence and the cycles of abuse that feels impossible to disrupt was perhaps a bit on the nose, but mostly I thought it was wonderfully layered. A haunted house story is never just about the haunted house (at least in a good one) and that shone through here.

I was about to be very upset about the “twist,” I really dislike horror that ends up just being psychosis or a dream, but trusted that Orlando knew what she was doing. The fake-out twist actually makes a lot of sense given the allegory here, like of course she would be gaslit and then we’d get the pleasure of the house murdering a bunch of cops who didn’t believe her. acab


I think this will be my top recommendation for books to read for Halloween (and just generally), it was scary, thematically rich, and just very well crafted. I had such a good time reading this!
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