raesengele's reviews
257 reviews
If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood, by Gregg Olsen
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
tense
fast-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Torture, Confinement, Cursing, Death, and Homophobia
This is a VERY graphic book. For the first time while reading true crime I honestly wondered if I should be reading these things. It's horrific what happened, but the family wanted it to be told.
Bitter Chills, by Kyle J. Durrant, Nick Harper, Roxie Voorhees, Carla Eliot
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Since this is an anthology, I thought I'd just break my ratings down by stories. Also, trigger warnings for each one, because while they're listed in the back of the book, there's some that need more than what they provided.
THE BURNING BOY by Denver Grenell - 4✨ fun story, could have been better
tw: murder (fire), prolonged threat
SNOWBLIND by Kyle J Durrant - 5✨ so good! You really feel the cold and fear with this one
tw: car accident, light gore
THE WILD HUNT by Roxie Voorhees - 2✨ the concept was interesting and it was folk horror which made me want to love it so bad, but the structure was confusing and these seemingly very traditional Norwegian characters claim that the wild hunt starts on Samhain when the celts were the only people to celebrate Samhain 🤦🏻♀️ which made me just question everything else in this book (I'm also not a fan of "bed time" story devices, so already knocked it down a peg for me)
tw: mutilation, child? murder (the age really isn't clear), natural death
THE COLD GRIEF by Spencer Hamilton - 5✨ definitely one of the best if not the best out of the bunch! So good! Worth it for this story
tw: child death, cancer, heavy grief, mentions of alcoholism
MY WHITE STAR by Carla Eliot - 3✨ okay. Pretty middle of the road. The ending was pretty anti-climactic
tw: sexually aggressive man, sexually motivated murder (strangulation), car accident
THE KILLER SNOWMAN by Cass Oakley - 4.5✨ this one has so much potential with the queer rep and the amazing dialogue and fun concept, but it felt super rushed with glaring typos and everything
tw: animal death
EVERYONE TO THE TABLE - 5✨ SO GOOD! The other story that makes this whole anthology! Loved it
tw: family murder (poison), quasi death of a baby, grief
THE CHRISTMAS EVE - 3✨ very middle of the road. Admittedly forgot about it before I even finished the next story
tw: murder (axe), gore
REALMER, REDEEMER by Joe Clements - 4✨ nice Lovecraftian vibes, but at a definite disadvantage because not only is a cryptid boyfriend introduced, the phrase "steeple phallus" was typed and not a speck of smut followed
tw: disappointing use of someone's cryptid boyfriend
EVERY HUNT IS A COLD ONE - 0✨ skimmed this one once it became clear it was a male author attempting to do a kidnapping rape/revenge story. No rape happens on the page, but that's absolutely where it was implied to be headed and I'm not here for that
tw: INCEST, (implied) PEDOPHILIA, SUGGESTED RAPE, religious bigotry, injury detail, cannibalism, child death
THE VIOLENT SNOW by Patrick Whitehurst - 4✨ a really fun concept and the writing was great, but the conflict kind of fizzled out once the cryptid boyfriend showed up (again no smut, male authors stop stealing women's cryptid boyfriends and not taking advantage of it) leaving the ending a bit anticlimactic
tw: death of cryptid boyfriend and not by snu snu
THE BURNING BOY by Denver Grenell - 4✨ fun story, could have been better
tw: murder (fire), prolonged threat
SNOWBLIND by Kyle J Durrant - 5✨ so good! You really feel the cold and fear with this one
tw: car accident, light gore
THE WILD HUNT by Roxie Voorhees - 2✨ the concept was interesting and it was folk horror which made me want to love it so bad, but the structure was confusing and these seemingly very traditional Norwegian characters claim that the wild hunt starts on Samhain when the celts were the only people to celebrate Samhain 🤦🏻♀️ which made me just question everything else in this book (I'm also not a fan of "bed time" story devices, so already knocked it down a peg for me)
tw: mutilation, child? murder (the age really isn't clear), natural death
THE COLD GRIEF by Spencer Hamilton - 5✨ definitely one of the best if not the best out of the bunch! So good! Worth it for this story
tw: child death, cancer, heavy grief, mentions of alcoholism
MY WHITE STAR by Carla Eliot - 3✨ okay. Pretty middle of the road. The ending was pretty anti-climactic
tw: sexually aggressive man, sexually motivated murder (strangulation), car accident
THE KILLER SNOWMAN by Cass Oakley - 4.5✨ this one has so much potential with the queer rep and the amazing dialogue and fun concept, but it felt super rushed with glaring typos and everything
tw: animal death
EVERYONE TO THE TABLE - 5✨ SO GOOD! The other story that makes this whole anthology! Loved it
tw: family murder (poison), quasi death of a baby, grief
THE CHRISTMAS EVE - 3✨ very middle of the road. Admittedly forgot about it before I even finished the next story
tw: murder (axe), gore
REALMER, REDEEMER by Joe Clements - 4✨ nice Lovecraftian vibes, but at a definite disadvantage because not only is a cryptid boyfriend introduced, the phrase "steeple phallus" was typed and not a speck of smut followed
tw: disappointing use of someone's cryptid boyfriend
EVERY HUNT IS A COLD ONE - 0✨ skimmed this one once it became clear it was a male author attempting to do a kidnapping rape/revenge story. No rape happens on the page, but that's absolutely where it was implied to be headed and I'm not here for that
tw: INCEST, (implied) PEDOPHILIA, SUGGESTED RAPE, religious bigotry, injury detail, cannibalism, child death
THE VIOLENT SNOW by Patrick Whitehurst - 4✨ a really fun concept and the writing was great, but the conflict kind of fizzled out once the cryptid boyfriend showed up (again no smut, male authors stop stealing women's cryptid boyfriends and not taking advantage of it) leaving the ending a bit anticlimactic
tw: death of cryptid boyfriend and not by snu snu
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Car accident
Moderate: Car accident, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Cancer, Cannibalism, Child death, and Confinement
Minor: Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Rape, and Incest
These are not in every story, but do come up in at least one
A Court of Mist and Fury, by Sarah J. Maas
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
On the Many Deaths of Amanda Palmer (and the Many Crimes of Tobias James), by Rohan Kriwaczek
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, by Casey Cep
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Unmemory, by Kristi DeMeester
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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? It's complicated
5.0
A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I get the hype now. I'm on the train. I'm on the caboose with how late I am, but I'm on it. The fact that it took all the way up to the last 150ish pages to get me on board did loose it a star however.
Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The Heroine's Journey: For Writers, Readers, and Fans of Pop Culture, by Gail Carriger
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
3.0
The information about the Heroine's Journey and how it differs from the Hero's Journey in this book is 5 stars. Unfortunately, there are a lot of repetitive or even unnecessary chapters once you get past that information. It really felt like Carriger wanted to write a general book about writing and a book about the Heroine's Journey but didn't want to split them up. What results is her breaking one of her own rules: I walked into this expecting a dissertation on the Heroine's Journey and what I got was 5 chapters on the Heroine's Journey; a chapter, two subsections, and an epilogue whining about how no one respects the genres Carriger writes in; a chapter long history of gothic and genre fiction (two words she frustratingly uses interchangeably); and two separate chapters about reader expectations that could have honestly been a paragraph. That's four chapters and a handful of subsections I would have cut entirely and told Gail to put into a separate book. (Minus the whining about mainstream respect. Can I just vere off for a second? I'm so sick of traditionally and successfully published authors whining about mainstream "respect." You have an audience! People are reading your books and loving them enough to justify continued book deals! You have respect, who cares where it's coming from? Stop whining! Besides the mainstream is a fickle bastard. Any respect you get from it will only last until it turns on you. Cult followings are more loyal than anything mainstream success has to offer.) That being said, the information on the Heroine's Journey is worth picking up a copy, but know there's a chance you'll be skimming through the second half the way I did.
Before I end this, I have a huge bone to pick with her about her whole subsection on "writing for yourself is selfish and leads to marginalized voices being minimized."
First, and I admittedly have a long standing beef with this, "write for yourself" doesn't mean to ignore audience expectations or criticism. It simply means that when you sit down to write your first draft it should be for you. It should be the story that you want to hear and to write. You can go back later and adjust for criticism later, but that first draft should be something you love and want to put out into the world enough to sculpt as close to perfection. IT'S NOT SELFISH TO WRITE THE STORIES YOU WANT TO SEE THAT AREN'T BEING WRITTEN OR PUBLISHED.
Secondly, marginalized voices/stories/characters aren't being silenced because authors are only writing for themselves. They're being silenced because publishers/producers are using audience expectations against creatives to force them to write within a white, straight, cisgendered mold. Writing for yourself and writing the characters and stories YOU want to see in the market is how those things get made, not by following audience expectations. That's the very reason I write by the "give your audience what they didn't know they wanted" philosophy, because an audience can only expect what they've already seen before.
Thirdly, do not hide behind this claim that you write the Heroine's Journey solely because it's what your readers want. You wrote an entire book justifying it's use, which includes an entire chapter, two subsections, AND an epilogue complaining about how the mainstream devalues the Heroine's Journey. Why did you begin writing the Heroine's Journey to begin with? Before you had an audience telling you they love the Heroine's Journey? Is it for the reason that you state on page 4 that "the moment I did study [the Heroine's Journey], I noticed how much I was drawn to this narrative." Because YOU enjoy the Heroine's Journey? Because YOU enjoy reading the Heroine's Journey? Because YOU enjoy writing the Heroine's Journey enough to write an entire book justifying it's usage? Is that selfish or is it simply writing your first draft for yourself?
Before I end this, I have a huge bone to pick with her about her whole subsection on "writing for yourself is selfish and leads to marginalized voices being minimized."
First, and I admittedly have a long standing beef with this, "write for yourself" doesn't mean to ignore audience expectations or criticism. It simply means that when you sit down to write your first draft it should be for you. It should be the story that you want to hear and to write. You can go back later and adjust for criticism later, but that first draft should be something you love and want to put out into the world enough to sculpt as close to perfection. IT'S NOT SELFISH TO WRITE THE STORIES YOU WANT TO SEE THAT AREN'T BEING WRITTEN OR PUBLISHED.
Secondly, marginalized voices/stories/characters aren't being silenced because authors are only writing for themselves. They're being silenced because publishers/producers are using audience expectations against creatives to force them to write within a white, straight, cisgendered mold. Writing for yourself and writing the characters and stories YOU want to see in the market is how those things get made, not by following audience expectations. That's the very reason I write by the "give your audience what they didn't know they wanted" philosophy, because an audience can only expect what they've already seen before.
Thirdly, do not hide behind this claim that you write the Heroine's Journey solely because it's what your readers want. You wrote an entire book justifying it's use, which includes an entire chapter, two subsections, AND an epilogue complaining about how the mainstream devalues the Heroine's Journey. Why did you begin writing the Heroine's Journey to begin with? Before you had an audience telling you they love the Heroine's Journey? Is it for the reason that you state on page 4 that "the moment I did study [the Heroine's Journey], I noticed how much I was drawn to this narrative." Because YOU enjoy the Heroine's Journey? Because YOU enjoy reading the Heroine's Journey? Because YOU enjoy writing the Heroine's Journey enough to write an entire book justifying it's usage? Is that selfish or is it simply writing your first draft for yourself?