So I read 20 books this month, 2 shy of what I read last month but I did start A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin which is interesting to say the least. If I keep up this pace I will definitely achieve my Goodreads goal of 300 books this year.
Mindhunter by John E. Douglas & Mark Olshaker ***** – All I knew about Mindhunter before going into it was that it follow the career and cases of an FBI special agent who was the inspiration for Jack Crawford’s character in Silence of the Lambs, needless to say I was sold. We are introduced to one of the authors John E. Douglas who in 1983 had been running the Behavioural Science Unit of the FBI by himself and after an almost deadly battle with viral encephalitis, he was considering giving up on the FBI altogether when he visits the grave of a little girl that was murdered and her case was still unsolved, when he returns to give a talk, he finds the appreciation and drive to work again and is back in action a month later in April of 1984. This man’s determination from the beginning was brilliant and really made me admire him before I even knew the cases he had worked on. It does mention in the introduction that some of the cases detailed in this book are now solved whereas they we still open and unsolved when the book was written and published.
2. Dark Secret by Danielle Rose *** – Dark Secret isn’t something I’d normally read as I have read anything paranormal romance type books since I was in my Twilight phase (and we all know what that did to us), but I was willing to give it a chance because it sounded interesting. The opening chapter introduces us to 17 year-old Ava Lopez, a novice spirit witch and the self-appointed guardian of all the witches and humans in Darkhaven and is tasked with keeping watch for vampires. Ava as a spirit witch, she has the gift of clairvoyance and for the weeks leading up to the upcoming ritual she has been feeling something very dark. When her mother forbids her from hunting one night she plans to go anyway, she has a personal connection as her father was killed by vampires. Ava seems to be an oddity among witches who don’t necessarily use combat tactics opting instead to rely on their magic but it is only at its strongest at specific times in certain seasons. After sneaking out she meets her best friend, Liv, who belongs to a different coven to hunt with her and despite being a fire witch, one of the strongest types, Liv has never trained in combat the way Ava has and it isn’t long before they come across vampires.
3. Dark Magic by Danielle Rose ***** – After the seemingly conclusive ending of Dark Secret, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Dark Magic as we re-join Ava in her new life as a witch turned vampire. The opening to Dark Magic was definitely explosive as it starts two weeks after the end of book one with Ava and Jasik hunting down some rogues but they are greatly outnumbered. Ava manages to defeat the ones after her but when she hears Jasik in pain she races back to help and the pair are quickly overwhelmed but Ava manages to call upon her old magic to save them. This shouldn’t be possible now she is a vampire and even the vampire leader; Amicia doesn’t understand what this means so she decides to call Holland home to the manor but Holland isn’t a vampire but a witch.
4. Dark Promise by Danielle Rose ***** – After the dramatic ending of Dark Magic, I couldn’t wait to jump into Dark Promise and see what Ava was going to do now one of her best friend is missing. Speaking with her mother and the other witches Ava realises just how much she has changed and how little she truly wants to help them after the way they treated her, however, she doesn’t want Liv’s life to be the forfeit for not helping. Once again she pleads with Amicia and the other vampires to help but Amicia makes the decision not to help and knowing how stubborn Ava is she forces her to make a blood oath to not help them on her own. As soon as she makes the promise she feels like she has betrayed Jasik in some way and she can feel Amicia forces her will upon her own and she feels helpless but she doesn’t tell Jasik despite her instincts telling her too. Ava is now thrown into a situation where she doesn’t feel any loyalty to her coven or her mother but she still wants to help them but doesn’t feel she would survive without her new family.
5. After Darkness by J F Johns **** – So this is a book that has been on my radar but I wasn’t going to pick it up until I saw it being offered for review on YA Bound Blog Tours. The synopsis of After Darkness is really interesting, it gave me a mix of V for Vendetta and Lunar Chronicles with a massive dose of the Hunger Games vibes, I love V for Vendetta and Hunger Games but I feel really meh about the Lunar Chronicles so I am hoping this falls more towards V for Vendetta and Hunger Games than the Lunar Chronicles. So this world features both humans and cyborgs who are forbidden to interact but our protagonist Terra Underwood doesn’t understand this law, which is punishable by death. After Darkness opens with Terra having a dream about a boy with silver hair who she desperately tries to save but fails every time after being chased by a huge crow. I can already tell that the boy is someone she is going to meet later on in the book and might possibly be a love interest as well.
6. The Spook’s Sacrifice by Joseph Delaney ***** – After the ending of the Spook’s Mistake, I was eager to up into book 6 and find out what is happening with Alice and how Tom is coping with everything now that his and Mr. Gregory’s relationship will never be the same again. The Spook’s Sacrifice definitely opens with a bang as Tom is attacked in his home but a maenad assassin, these creatures aren’t witches but they hail for Greece, his mother’s homeland, and worship a goddess called the Ordeen and this one had been sent to kill Tom. The boggart wasn’t able to protect him as someone had lured it away with blood and probably drugged it with something that confused it which is why it killed the assassin after she had been bound. When Mr. Gregory arrives back from dealing with another boggart, he is just as confused as Tom but Tom is hopeful he can ask his mother questions when she arrives home for a visit in less than a week.
7. The Spook’s Nightmare by Joseph Delaney ***** – After the very sad ending of the Spook’s Sacrifice I was expecting the Spook’s Nightmare to begin on a happy note but I certainly wasn’t prepared for this very depressing opening. On their way back from collecting Claw, Blood and Bone from a local farmer, Alice, Tom and Mr. Gregory see that the way in advancing upon them and by the time they return home it has burnt to the ground. Mr. Gregory is heartbroken at the loss of the library which held the accumulated knowledge of several generation of spooks and it is all gone apart from one book that survived. This isn’t the end as the boggart has also gone and Bony Lizzie, who we learnt in a previous book is Alice’s mother has escaped. This may give the nightmare Mr. Gregory had earlier new meaning as she saw Bony Lizzie and the Fiend’s side and she is ruling over the County. However, they don’t have time to think about this, they intend to go to Bill Arkwright’s mill and make use of his library but the soldiers are everywhere leaving them no choice but to flee to the island of Mona until it is safe to return. The group don’t get a warm welcome in Mona, one of the yeomen tells them that Mr. Gregory is likely to be killed because he is seen as too old to work, Tom will be put to work and he doesn’t even mention the fate that would await Alice before Mr. Gregory knocks him out. It seems that Mona might just be even more dangerous that the County right now.
8. The Spook’s Destiny by Joseph Delaney ***** – After the end of the Spook’s Nightmare where John Gregory and company finally get rid of Bony Lizzie and he also learns the truth of Tom’s deal with the Fiend and the blood jar that keeps him and Alice safe, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from this book but I do know the witch assassin, Grimalkin will be making an appearance shortly. When we re-join Alice, Tom and Mr. Gregory they are heading from Mona to Ireland since the situation there has become troubling and Grimalkin still hasn’t arrived and they haven’t heard from her either. On the boat trip a storm suddenly comes upon them and Tom thinks it is the work of a witch but isn’t sure until he sees a pair of eyes in the clouds, one blue, one green and immediately recognises it as the Celtic witch Bill Arkwright had killed while he was working with him.
9. I am Grimalkin by Joseph Delaney *** – After the ending of the Spook’s Destiny, Grimalkin takes the Fiend’s head and runs with it, hoping to keep the body and head separated long enough for Tom, Alice and Mr. Gregory to find a way to destroy the Fiend once and for all and this is where we join her. Grimalkin knows she can’t run forever, first of all it isn’t in her nature, and second the number of dark creatures after her increases daily and soon there will to may to fight or outrun. We learn that Grimalkin always had a dislike of the Fiend even as a child but bore him a child to keep him away from her but when he killed her son who had been born completely human, neither abhuman or witch, her grief slowly transformed into a need for revenge which she is helping to satisfy with the help of the Spooks and Alice. However, the Fiend warns her that something dark and even more deadly than her is stalking her now and when she is set upon but many dark creatures she senses something completely unknown to her, it is powerful and she wonders if this is the creature the Fiend spoke of but fears nothing yet. She quickly learns that creature chasing her is a kretch, a being born of a she-wolf and a demon, crafted by an alliance of witches, mages and abhumans with the sole purpose of killing her and despite trying to outrun she has to turn and fight. She temporarily wounds the kretch giving her time to put some distance between them but she has been scratched by one of the kretch’s poisoned claws and she needs aid quickly but there are few she can trust. The only one she can turn to is her apprentice, Thorne.
10. The Spook’s Blood by Joseph Delaney ***** – After being disappointed with I am Grimalkin I was weary about the last 4 books in the series. Slither’s Tale and Alice (books 11 and 12 respectively) don’t have Thomas Judd as the narrator for the audiobook and so far the only audiobook that had a different narrator was I am Grimalkin and I only gave that 3 stars, so we will have to wait and see. I was also very disappointed with the loss of Thorne as a character as she was shaping up to be very interesting but I am glad that Grimalkin survived her encounter with the kretch as she is one of my favourite characters in the series despite her book falling a little flat for me. The Spook’s Blood pick s up at the same ere I am Grimalkin ended, Alice has disappeared and Tom is worried as he and his master are setting out to buy some new books to rebuild his library when she suddenly returns and relays the warnings from Slake so John Gregory decides to let Tom and Alice go to Pendle alone to retrieve the items he needs from the Tower. However, along the way Alice wants to stop at Witch Dell to see Agnes and decides to give her power to make her a stronger witch despite Tom’s protests and he realises that their friendship is changing as Alice is using dark magic more freely now and he worries that she is being drawn completely into the dark.
11. The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace ***** – I didn’t know much about The Princess Saves Herself in This One other than it is a poetry collection divided up into four parts; The Princess, The Damsel, The Queen & You. I was informed that the first three parts relate to the life of Amanda Lovelace while You serves as a note to the reader. I didn’t know much about the content except that it features themes of life and all of its love, loss, grief, healing, empowerment, and inspirations. I like not knowing much about poetry collections and Dear Wallflower by Sara Secora is one of the favourite books of all time.
12. The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One by Amanda Lovelace ***** – Just like The Princess Saves Herself in This One, The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One is divided into four parts; the trial, the burning, the firestorm and the ashes. This book also contains several trigger warnings so do take care when reading this one. Unlike the first book, The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One doesn’t focus on loss or grief but it pours all of its energy into empowerment and fighting back against those that oppressed us, specifically men although it uses the analogy of match-boys that were used historically to set witches a light.
13. The Mermaid’s Voice Returns in This One by Amanda Lovelace ***** – So after reading the first two books I wasn’t sure whether this book was going to rehash the themes from the other collections or bring something new into the narrative that Amanda has crafted. I was a bit apprehensive going into it but it follows the same format being split into four sections; the sky, the shipwreck, the song and the surviving but I was still eager to see what this collection had in store for me.
14. Slither’s Tale by Joseph Delaney ***** – I was quite hesitant to pick up Slither’s Tale and Alice, books 11 and 12 in this series because they don’t have Thomas Judd as the narrator but I was pleasantly surprised to start Slither’s Tale and quite like both of the narrators voices. Slither isn’t human and is a mage that basically owns a group of villages and towns known as a haizda, where he farms blood from the people and animals in order to survive. He has an agreed with a farmer known as Old Rowler to trade blood for protection for his three daughters, the eldest, Nessa is someone who Slither attacked 7 years before when she was 10. Shortly after awakening from his hibernation in the winter Slither calls on the farmer for blood as he normally does, however, shortly after the farmer is attacked by a bull and is gravely injured. He reminds Slither of the conditions of their trades and he is now bound to take the two youngest daughters, Susan and Bryony to their aunts home and in return he gets the farm, the animals and Nessa. This is fortunate for Slither as every 40 years he has to sell a purra, or human slave at the market or be outcast from his kind and this is what he plans to with Nessa. I has also read in some reviews that this is the first book in the series that doesn’t shy away from sex, so I am intrigued by what is to come.
15. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins ***** – By now everyone knows the Hunger Games is an iconic series and I am so excited for the prequel following President Snow to come out so I couldn’t wait to dive into Catching Fire. So this picks up six months after the end of the Hunger Games as it starts halfway between Games. We learn that this year is a special year as a Quarter Quell is going to take place which means something different compared to the regular games. Katniss wasn’t alive for the previous Quell but it was the year Haymitch won games with twice as many tributes, which gives me a whole new respect from the man and I can understand why he drinks. Things haven’t been going well for Katniss as she isn’t really talking to Peeta or Gale so she feels more alone than ever but she tries to make her life as normal as possible but with the Victory Tour approaching that really isn’t possible.
16. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins ***** – After the dramatic ending of Catching Fire, I was absolutely pumped to get into Mockingjay, the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I am expecting a lot of differences between the book and the movie especially since Mockingjay Parts 1 & 2 are my least favourite movies. The opening to Mockingjay is just straight up depressing as Katniss takes a trip to the bombed out District 12, where she has a panic attack at the state of her home and the bodies littering the streets. Katniss is prone to panic attacks after the end of the Quarter Quell and she and her family are now residing in District 13 but she finds the strict rules and regulations of the underground district almost as oppressive at the games especially since they want her to be the symbol of their revolution and she has absolutely no desire to be that person.
17. Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami ** – After reading In this Miso Soup and loving it and wanted to read all of Ryu Murakami’s books and Almost Transparent Blue was his first book. This review is going to be different from my other ones as this book has been described as being almost plotless but it is semi-autobiographic and follows a group of friends locked in a destructive cycle of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, which reminds me of Requiem for a Dream which I almost enjoyed.
18. Piercing by Ryu Murakami **** – So from what I can gather from the synopsis, Piercing follows a similar set of themes that are present in his other book In the Miso Soup, so I was excited to get into this one. Piercing definitely starts out with the right creepy notes, we observe Kawashima Masayuki standing over the crib of his four month old daughter, Rie as his wife Yoko sleeps. Everything seems normal about this about Kawashima pulls out an ice pick and begins telling himself that he isn’t going to stab his baby, We learn that Yoko left an abusive relationship with an older man when they met 6 years before and Kawashima was abused by his mother because he reminded her of his father and he eventually ended up in a home for abused children. Kawashima has also suffered from insomnia and night terrors which have got worse as he grew older. His night terrors leave him distraught and in the past he has even stabbed someone with an ice pick but his wife remains unaware of this. Piercing definitely has the same creepy, atmospheric vibes that In the Miso Soup had and I am excited to see where this goes.
19. Audition by Ryu Murakami ***** – I have seen the movie adaptation of this book numerous times, in fact, it is one of my favourite Asian horror movies of all time. For many years I wasn’t aware that it was based on a book so when I learned this I was eager to see if this book lives up to my love of the movie and In the Miso Soup. I know I mention In the Miso Soup in every review I’ve done for Ryu Murakami but that is the standard as it is just wonderfully dark and gritty. The book opens by introducing us to Aoyama whose wife, Ryoko died of cancer when their son, Shige was only 8. We learn that Aoyama was a less than faithful husband but their relationship stayed strong for the sake of their son and now he is all grown up he suggests his father remarries. Aoyama considers this but as a very rich man he can afford to have his sexual needs meets and considers nothing of it but when he mentions it to a friend, Yoshikawa he has reconsidered, Yoshikawa agrees that it is a good idea and that they hold auditions to find the perfect wife of Aoyama as he is quite picky.
20. In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami ***** – I have already read In the Miso Soup but since I am currently reading all of Ryu Murakami’s books it felt right to re-read it now. Having read all of his book apart from 69 and Coin Locker Babies, I can honestly say so far In the Miso Soup is my favourite and the opening chapter really demonstrates this. We are introduced to a 20-year-old Kenji who acts as a tour guide for foreigners around the seedier parts of Tokyo and his specialised in sex tours. We meet his as he meets a new client, an American called Frank and immediately Kenji feels there is something very strange about Frank, from the way he dresses to the way he looks but the money is good as he is booked for 3 nights and can’t turn it down.
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