westernskynaida's reviews
132 reviews

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

4.0

I read this because of the note at the end of Kingfisher’s The Hollow Places

This was very good. The atmosphere definitely gave me the tense feelings the narrator and the Swede felt during this whole ordeal

At the end of reading this I really wanted more of the The Willows and then realized I did get that with my previous read so definitely check The Hollow Places if you enjoyed this

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

4.0

I would have given this a higher rating but there were some parts that dragged on a bit. The Willows world and the climax really stuck out to me and the imagery was so good

I want to read the Algernon Blackwood piece mentioned in the author notes at the end now

Edit
I’ve read The Willows by Algernon Blackwood and I’m increasing this a bit for a higher score because I realized after finishing that it gave me what my brain wanted which was more of the Willows world

Brother by Ania Ahlborn

3.75

For now I’m rating this a 3.75, maybe I’ll change the score once I sleep on it a bit but this book was…really rough

I saw this recommended as a book that disturbs the reader and I definitely agree. While I did call the main twist before the last 25% of the book (I actually wrote it down that I guessed it at 26%) it still was a hard twist to swallow because of the psychological torture that Michael had endured during the entire book

I had never read an “extreme” horror before and while this isn’t to the level as some others, it does at least prepare me for if/when I feel I can stomach those more extreme books

For anyone interested in reading, please read the content/trigger warnings. While I may have been able to stomach the last quarter of the book, I do feel sick to my stomach…maybe I’ll try to finish some of the romance books I’ve been putting off to clean my palate 

Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky
Did not finish book. Stopped at 18%.

I’d been really interested in reading this one but I’m glad I rented it from the library rather than buying it outright…

I read 22 chapters and the religious talk and undertones drove me nuts…

I’ll just read a synopsis online because I’m struggling only 120 something pages in…I can’t imagine reading 700+ pages of this…

Missing Parts by Lucinda Berry

2.25

I’ve decided to read all of Berry’s books - so I started with the first published and working my way to newest

This one wasn’t bad, but I can definitely see why it’s the first published. I kind of called the twist from the end about The Night but besides that it didn’t hook me as much as Phantom Limb did. Which isn’t to say Missing Parts was bad, it just…I’m not entirely sure how to explain it

The ending made me more mad than anything else but I’m glad Celeste was able to go back to where she felt she belonged. I liked David at the beginning but man he pissed me off at the end there. I know it’s not unheard of in these situations but it still hurt to see him being described as someone super understanding to someone just so full of hate

Summit Lake by Charlie Donlea

3.75

I decided to read Donlea’s books from first published to his most recently published since I’ve read Twenty Years Later and Those Empty Eyes already. And finding out that some of the characters in earlier books sometimes show up in newer books is right up my alley for cool inner-verses

I was actually kind of nervous about reading Donlea’s first published book because I feel like the two I’ve read were very good. Summit Lake did a very good job of setting and story. I had suspect lists and reasons for why I had them and even then one of the twists still surprised me. It does get a bit of a lower score than some of the later books because it definitely took me a good bit to get latched into the story

I’ve given Donlea kudos but I’ll continue to do so, but Donlea has a very good knack for writing women protagonists which makes me sometimes forget that Donlea isn’t a woman

I look forward to the next one on the list

The Girl in Cabin 13 by A.J. Rivers
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.

Marking this as DNF because I just haven’t been in the mood to keep going with it. Maybe I’ll pick it up later in the future…it was good from what I had read it just not the right reading brain at the moment

Old Country: The Reddit Sensation, Soon to Be a Horror Classic by Matt Query, Harrison Query

4.25

I liked this one. There was a lot of tension and some fairly scary bits. I definitely held my breath at some points

Harry was insufferable. I liked Sasha more. But honestly I loved Dan and Lucy. I’m so glad we got a lot of those two to counter act the insufferable chapters that was Harry

I do feel that this was a good book on tackling trauma and being able to be open about thoughts you’ve closed your mind off from

Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell

4.0

I think I read the first parts of this when it was originally on Reddit. So this was fun to see that this had been expanded on. I also read this while we were on a trip up to Winter Park, CO in a cabin with the extended family (probably not the best thing to read honestly but I finished it)

I feel like there were quite a few scary and uncomfortable parts. I also feel the folklore was very well done and with quite a bit of tact

My biggest complaint was that if you’re going to name locations in Colorado, just use actual Colorado areas. I was automatically changing the names of locations - Pale Peak to Pikes Peak. I got excited about Arvada and realized the location was referencing somewhere in California. If you’re from Colorado, just be aware that that might annoy you

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

4.25

Two things I learned while reading this book. 1) King takes quite a bit to describe the exposition for the story. 2) King is also very bad to read on a deadline

Those two points aside, I thought this was a great book - especially once you got past the initial 150-200 pages for the backstory. Once I hit a certain point I really didn’t want to stop reading

I would definitely recommend this to someone who is interested in King but isn’t sure about diving into his mountain of horror books. Just don’t read it on a deadline like I did for a bookclub