This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

"And which am I?" Asked August, pulling away. "Your weakness, or your strength?" 

Emily's warm brown eyes went wide and flat as the truth spilled out. "Both."

MONSTERS.

Amiright?

Monsters.

There's some books that stride into your life and then beat the crap out of you. This is that book. And if
 you stay tuned, I can show you just how this book found all my weakness and left me in a little puddle of nothingness.

This book releases on July 5th, 2016

Genre:  Post apocalyptic paranormal horror

Feelings: Did I mention this book slapped me in the face repeatedly? 

Cuteness: -clear throat- This ship. I will go down with it. [Insert that captain jack sparrow gif. you know the one]

Fast pacing: Yes. Things keep happening, even if this is a plot-light book

Series: Two book series

Read if you like: Supernatural. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Tuchlocke. Shallow Graves. The setting of Legend.

Content: Violence, mainly. There blood. The killings of monsters and humans. Blooood. That's all I remember.

Trigger warning? Family members loss. Touches of abusive relationships. 

In summary... He's a monster. She hunts them. They both are monstrous, they both live in a monstrous world. And it's crumbling. 

Thoughts: The pluck of violin strings. Hard stone and flickering lights.

Messages: Differences between two humans, identity not defining identity.

Rating: 4.75/5 Very close five stars. PRACTICALLY five stars

-The Characters-

I'm calm. I'm calm. I will calmly express my love fore these characters. Oh who am I kidding. I will screech it from the rooftops. 

AUGUST! KATE! 

First punch to the face: Identity. I love characters who struggle with their very identity. I love characters who want something even if they're aware that something is probably not good for them. I love characters with good hearts but bad experiences that have turned them cold.

August and Kate were those characters who were so similar even though they were so different. They each struggled with the same things more or less, but from their different lifestyles and personalities they went about it so differently. But worked so well together. 

Reactions to the first meeting of Kate: Yes. Yes yes, go burn down that church lil' anger bean

Reactions to the first meeting of August: Little rapunzel music-bean. 

Kate. How she tries so hard to be tough, cruel, and pulls it off but at a cost. And August. August is a little violin playing doughnut. 'Nuff said.

Swift kick in the shin: THEY WERE SO SAD. They hated and loved and wanted to be so much better.

Oooh my. And side characters. No one seemed underdeveloped to me. There were some we didn't see enough of to see their souls, but everyone was clearly depicted. I'm so excited to see where this story goes.

-Plot and Writing-

Aggressive pummeling to the nose: AESTHETICS.

Can we just talk about the aesthetics of the story? The violin strings, the metal nails, the darkness, street lights, stone steps, charcoal eyes and shadows. Everything fit together, everything melded into it's own song. 

I do wish there had been a bit more explanation early on. It was confusing, seeing as Chapter one made it seem like modern day, kinda supernatural-like, but then chapter two was clearly a different world. The world is clearly well-developed, but I didn't get it explained soon enough. And while sometimes that's done on purpose, in this case I was left confused. I had to go back to the blurb a few times, check the genres on goodreads, to kinda place myself a bit more so I didn't get too out of it. 

I don't have much to say about the plot. Partly because there wasn't much? Like, there was plot. But all the "OH THIS IS A PROBLEM" type things came much later in the book. In this case, this is a duology and I think it works, but if it hadn't been for my love for the characters right at page one, there wouldn't have been much for me to keep reading for.

Elbow straight to the stomach: Writing. Victoria can write. Her words fit this setting so well, painting this picture of blood and stone and claws. Writing was on point. Setting was on point, I just wanted to see more of it. Visuals were so clearly depicted I wanted to paint them on my walls.

-Messages and Others-

This book took a lot of tropes that I adore, smooshed them into a book with the types of aesthetics and moods I adore and baked it on high for a couple hours to make this beautiful song that I thoroughly enjoyed.

 It also got in a couple punches, left a few bruises, but I forgive it.

Good books that beat you up are easy to forgive. 


Overall, this is another solid book, another to go on the list of favorites, another to anticipate the release of, another to fling at all my horror-lovers. 

Wow look at this handy dandy link to it's amazon page. Only 10 dollars to preorder the hardback? Wow! You see that add-to-cart button?

Click it. Do the thing. 

Did you do it? Good. 

Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace

Their killer was there when I woke up. He was dead before I saw his face. I know what he did, but I don't know his name. 

It was an accident, the first time I killed. It was an instinct I didn't know I had. I had never made a choice.

The second time was on purpose.

So I go into the bookstore. 

I see this on the new release shelf.

I stare at it.

It stares at me.

I message Linnea to see if she's read it. She hasn't.

I debate for a while. Then, I finally just pick it up and find a corner of the store to read. 

It all went downhill from there. 

This is a very good monster book. At a glance, it is a mash up of a lot of different possible plots, all packed together. Was it a hit or miss? I'm thinking both. But I liked it.

Soooo.....

Stats:

Genre:  Paranormal. A sort of “monsterology” book

Feelings: A few here and there.

Cuteness: There was no romance! Some adorable friend-ships, though.

Fast pacing: More or less. It’s all over the place

Series: Not that I believe.

Read if you like: Monster type books. Think Jackaby meets Supernatural meets like…Warm Bodies. With elements of like....Dexter. And Minnow Bly. All smooshed together.

Content: A few mentions of sex, but none actually occurring. Some violence. Plenty of that good ole bloody factor.

Trigger warning? Loss of family. A few mentions of suicide.

(Note for more conservative people: Main character IS a bisexual character)

In summary... She’s pretty sure she’s supposed to be dead. After all, waking in a grave after being dead for a year is a pretty solid reason for thinking that. But now she simply can’t die, and some crazy cult is after her, and her only friend is a couple of ghouls and a nightmare.

Thoughts: Dirt. A lot of dirt. Dried blood under your nails.

Messages: Not a theme-heavy book, but some internal battles dealing with starting over, and revenge. 

Overall

Rating: 4/5

Spoiler Free Review

So. This book. While it was far from the atmospheric horror story I wanted and was expecting, putting that aside made me see that yes, I actually really did enjoy this book. Okay, it did have a pretty solid atmosphere, and there was some creepy stuff that went down. But. You have to understand, they compared this book to Holly Black and Nova on the back, so my expectations skyrocketed.

-The Characters-

Unfortunately, this character did not hold past the never-can-connect-to-main-character disease that I have. I definitely liked Breezy. She was funny, far from whiny, snarky, and realistic. She was a diverse character, the first bisexual that I’ve actually found in this genre so far. And I loved her backstory.

But. I just kind of didn’t care. But that’s my fault.

HOWEVER. The side characters.

The side characters.

Rain was so cool. I don’t have anything eloquent or insightful to say about her. She was just so cool. Her monster aspect was new and fascinating, and her interactions with everyone else amusing.

And Zeke. Hello yes I very much adored Zeke. He was the ghoul, the kind of very grumpy why-must-i-do-these-things kind of guy. Hated everyone. But did nice things because he begrudgingly didn’t want these people to get murdered. But then sulked some more. But not in the broody way. Just kind of the i-quit way. Also: he ate humans. So there’s that.

His brother was great too. Honestly both of them were so great. I wanted MORE of their relationship, because the snippets I saw of them were fantastic. I just really love brother relationships.

-Story, writing and plot-

This…was a cool story.

No, this book is not horror. It was advertised as such, but I don’t consider it that. I think this was a very well done book, by an author who I look forward to see more of. At first, I was a tad overwhelmed. I felt like Wallace had become very excited and thought LETS JUST PUT EVERY MONSTER EVER IN ONE WORLD.

But then, after I got passed the initial shock….I thought “Yes. Why not, though???” Because I love that type of monsterology book. All the monsters! All of them!

I just wished this was advertised as such.

And so, I think people should definitely read this. It’s funny, it’s entertaining, it’s a fun story.

What even was the plot of this book. I get it, Breezy wants to know why suddenly she’s a re-animated corpse. And why suddenly there’s like banshees and ghouls and monsters everywhere.

But then there’s that weird cult that’s got this twisted idea that they have to remove all darkness and kill monsters. Which is interesting. But it felt very underplayed. Both plots of the story were very interesting, but the pacing just felt…off.

Also: The ending wrapped up so fast. And so neatly. I’m pretty sure this is a standalone, and if so…color me a bit disappointed by the end. Not quite the Huge Conflict Climax I was waiting for.

-Other-

I really like characters. I love characters that have a distinct shape even when you know them for a few pages. I love when you can tell that the author developed each and every character. I like characters not think poorly of their families every page. I love families. I love monsters.

So, this book was a compilation of a lot of things I love. Even as it flopped in a few areas, this book was right for me. The negative reviews consist of people saying it is “too much” and while I can see where people are coming from…it wasn’t too much for me.

And so, overall, solid book. If you’re a fan of monsters GALORE…then this book is right for you.

Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke

The dark. It was thick as drying blood, so thick I could have held it in my hands, if they were free, palms filled with it. I could feel the blackness breathing, panting, panting, the dark, the dark, the dark.

Good heavens.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea was a book I was a bit "Eh?" about, but learned to love, simply because of how much Linnea loved it. 

Well then Wink Poppy Midnight's synopsis came out and I needed it.

So needless to say, when I received an arc, I cried a lot.

Warning: Very vague review. This book is dense even in it's 260 pages. It's hard to review.

This book will be released March 22nd 2016

Stats:

Genre:  ?????????????

Feelings: HAHAHAHAH -dies-

Happiness: Um

Cuteness: UM

Fast pacing: Paced wonderfully

Series: Nope

Read if you like: The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma. Poetic prose, dark deep twisted stories, with dark twisted characters 

Content: Plenty of sex, but nothing graphic or described.

Trigger warning? Suicide talk. Psychological fear

In one sentence... Two girls, one boy, secrets, forests, and how far someone will go.

Thoughts: Strawberries, splinters, wood, mud, ice cold water and silk. The smell of hay, the feel of old book pages under your fingers

Messages: ???

Overall

Rating: 5/5

I had few expectations. I knew it'd be amazing, but I was so confused as to if it'd be paranormal or realistic or what??

I was instantly smacked in the face with sense and descriptions and words. My face was the :O during most of it. 

-The characters-

Oh my. These characters. Their flaws and quirks and Midnight. 

Midnight, sweetheart. His poor good soul and his confusion and how lost that child is. His voice stood out. Then came Wink, with her freckles and curls and whimsy. And then Poppy. Poppy, Poppy, Poppy, her lies and anger. 

The voices were so strong. Midnight was reading nostalgia, Wink was reading fairy tales, and Poppy was reading salt. 

These characters stood out and even with as nasty or blind they could be I loved them. 

April has a knack for taking characters who do terrible things and making you somehow care, even if distantly. I should have been rageful at Poppy, to the point where I stopped reading but instead I cared. 

-The writing/structure-

April. Genevieve. Tucholke.

This woman knows how to write books. She knows how to spin webs and capture you and keep you there. Her writing flows, one word after the other. It reads like poetry but feels like something darker and more real. 

The story is like this collection of events that keep getting bigger and BIGGER AND BIGGER and it works. Nothing feels slow and disjointed, even with it's lack of the standard Obvious Story Starting Events and Things. 

To say I couldn't put it down is an understatement. I was being fit for my formal dress and my mom's trying to fit the skirt and she's maneuvering around me while I hold this book, frantically flipping pages.

-Other

The setting. It felt so vibrant and strong, each detail about it captured this image. This place, and this forest, and the hayloft. It felt so intensely real and it supported the story in the strongest way. 

This book is one that is full of teens being nasty and good and having too much dirt flung at them. It's rich. It's a story of drama that never feels dramatic. 

I don't know how she does it?? 

You look at this story and even read the synopsis and think "is this a dramatic love triangle paranormal" but the story behind those covers is something so much bigger? 

It's definitely not for everyone. It's vaguely edgy, new, raw and something some people may not be insane about, but this story snaked it's grip around my wrists and I definitely won't stop thinking about it for a good while.

The Dark Days Club by Allison Goodman

She remembered other whispers too, echoes of Lord Carlstons words: souls and darkness And one that she had heard over and over again: loss.

Another ARC I received! Of course it comes out in like 6 days but I was really busy okay.

Reading the reviews is a bit of a ? experience? Everyone seems to adore this book? I certainly didn't hate it. This book is a Good Story, a Good Historical, but a Meh Horror.

~this book will be released on Jan 25th~

the coveeerrrr, guys. ThE COvErR

Stats:

Genre:  Historical fiction paranormal

Feelings: Naw

Happiness: Fun?

Cuteness: Not really, for me at least. VErrrryrYYyyY vague romance. Like it's romance but not in your face insta-love

Fast pacing: Slow, but it fit given the time period for some reason 

Series: Yup

Read if you like: Paranormal regency? Quirky plots?

Content: Some sex talk. Like. The monsters and stuff. It's complicated. But there's sex stuff. Kissing very c l o s e l y. And that's about it?

Trigger warning? Vague rape-like situations. 

In one sentence... Helen is supposed to focus on finishing her Season and getting married....but paranormal abilities and monsters are definitely things that can get in the way of that

Thoughts: Parasols. Dripping in blood. 

Messages: I guess you could call in feministic but it's not really. it's what you'd expect from Regency-Girl-Can-Do-The-Thing but I found it far from annoyingly feministic 

Overall

Rating: 3.5/5

Vague Spoilers regarding the paranormal aspects of story

-The characters-

Helen was kinda just a lot fantastic. Like. She was a well put together heroine. She was realistically curious, not overly annoying, but also not overly Merida-istic. You know, the whole "I CAN CHOSE WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE FIGHT ME" Don't get me wrong I love Merida but this trope can be overdone, especially when books are set in decades when the way people treated woman was crap, even to anti-feminists.

And like. I love how Goodman didn't force the femisim. Helen didn't complain about stitching or cooking or parties because that's a part of her life. Helen didn't complain that she was being smothered in womanly duties because she was raised for that.

Anyway. Helen. I'm glad that she was noble, ready to do the right thing, without being arrogant about it. She genuinely wants the best for everyone including herself, and that's shown well. She's not too mary-sue, but she's not too I Am ~Special~. 

Normally I don't care much about "Special" characters, but after reading so much of this genre, I have started to grow more accustumed to what is used a lot. 

Which brings me to why I am the few not raving about this book. 

-Writing and structure-

I feel like I would have asbolutely adored this book if I was fourteen. Back when I first started writing. Back when I wanted an epic histroical girl kicking ass and gifted with COOL POWERS. That was the type of story I loved. 

Okay, I still do. Who doesn't want historical settings with cool powers and weird creatures?

But something about this story didn't feel quite as dark, gothic and unsettling as I like historical paranormals to be. This book felt like the type of story younger-me would write. A story that tries to be scary and Big but doesn't quite get there. A story that uses different fonts for when characters write letters and all that. If it weren't for the sex stuff, it'd feel more vaguely middle-grade-y, at least for me.

Please don't get me wrong. A lot of people will love this. A lot of people do love this. But I love gothic atmospheres, and so I went into this expecting a Regency Creepy Atmosphere, with fluid writing and scariness. And I didn't get it. Allison is definitely a good storyteller, and I think her voice fits well with this decade. But it wasn't quite there for me.

Fourteen year old Mariesa is dying of the Awesome inside of me right now, that's for sure. But as for my horror loving side....meh. It's fully my fault for expecting horror, since it wasn't advertised as such but what can I say. I really like horror. And I like my paranormal stories to scare.

-Other-

Okay, Goodman, you did your research.

I've read a lot of speculative historical, given that's what I write. And you can tell when an author cares about historical accuracy not just cool monsters. And I appreciate that.The setting was so vibrant, and I adored it.

Basically, this book has a lot going for it. The atmosphere is good in everything except the fact that it's trying to be scary.

Also like. The sex stuff. Really weirded me out. The monster legit sucks the energy from someone while fornicating with them. 

What.

What.

Yeah I was weirded out. 

I was glad that Goodman didn't fling too much at you. She actually invented her own demon thing. And it was weird and uncomfortable. But she didn't just have this regency setting and suddenly go "OH YEAH SO VAMPIRESWEARWOLVESWITCHESZOMBIES EXIST"

Because all those would be so freaking awesome but all at once is hard to pull off

Overall, this book did a good job of telling a story with some well done characters. The paranormal atmospehre was lacking for me, but overall I think Goodman has a great start to a series on her hands, and the more I think about it, the more ready I am to give book two a shot. 

Go you

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Do you really want to know where we come from?" she said. "In every century, in every country, they'll call us something different. They'll say we're ghosts, angels, demons, elemental spirits, and giving us a name doesn't help anybody. When did a name change what someone is?

Well, finally, I'm here with a review for a book I read the end of February. Do not judge me. 

If you like crazy cool faeries, dark atmospheres, and messed up characters, try this one out. For all the little things that bothered me, it's an enjoyable book.

Stats:

Genre: Faerie paranormal. 

Feelings: I didn't connect with the book as much as I wanted to, except for sibling love.

Happiness: See above

Cuteness: I personally didn't ship it. At all. 

Fast pacing: It was a steady solid story, but because of some reading problems I had going on, it dragged at a few parts.

Series: No

Read if you like: Faeries! Dark faeries. Changeling stuff, awesome sibling characters, POV characters who think they're awful but they aren't.

Content: Some kissy kissy touchy touchy. Some bloody stuff, some bits where Mackie mentions girls chests and other bits, so if any of that bothers you...well. Also profanity, teenage drinking, and stuff like that.

In one sentence... Mackie Doyle is a changeling and because of that dark magic is coming, and he is determined to stop it and rescue a missing child from the fate like his.

Thoughts: Cold wet grass and cold air. 

Messages: Not a message-y book, but it sent a lot of nice messages about the whole "You're not as dangerous and awful as you might think" thing.

Overall:

Rating: 3.5/5 I really liked it, but I don't think it was the right time for me to read it and get more out of it.

This review is SPOILER FREE

The Lovely Bits:

This was a lovely book through and through. Not perfect, but lovely. It had some great vibes and prose, and plenty of cool characters.

-Characters-

Mackie was a very interesting main character. I love reading about changelings, so getting a first person POV from one was really neat. He was likable, mainly because of how much he almost despised himself. That was really powerful.

Tate was definitely a refreshing character, though I didn't like her as much. She was far from the submissive female side character, and that was appreciated. I'm not saying that in the Blue-Sargent-Raging-Feminist way, but more of, it was a different character trope I hadn't seen for a while.

 Emma, on the other hand, I loved. I really love a good sibling relationship, and this one was effortlessly flawless. There dialogue and actions were relaxed and done so beautifully without shoving there sibling love on the reader.

The Faeries and villains? They were cool. They were twisted and evil, far from any type of faerie I have read about. 

-Structure and Plot- 

The plot was well thought out which perfectly led up to an epic climax. I liked the slow and steady pace, with the perfect amount of excitement scattered throughout. Other than that, there really isn't much to say about plot and stuff.

I'm just upset that this is Brenna's first book and it's this good.

-Messages and Other-

Mackie felt like he was not normal, or he was dangerous, but he proved multiple times that he was good. And that in itself is a really interesting thing. 

Brenna's prose was like fire. It flickered steadily, but occasionally burst up in a beautiful one liner or paragraph that you just grinned at yourself because you like it so much. I definitely want to read all the others of her books. They sound brilliant.

The Less Lovely Bits:

I don't really know why or how it dragged at one point, but it did. It's weird to be, because I loved the prose and characters and concept, but the whole story seemed almost flat. I'm really not sure why? Looking back I can't find anything that really threw me off. 

I think it's a combination of many little things that bugged me. I think the main problem is that I hadn't known what to expect really. And the atmosphere was more modernly scary that I thought. When I hear Faeries, I think something more ethereal and lightly dark if that makes sense. This one was like a punk rock faerie story, which will appeal to many and even me, but not what I had been expecting and wanting to read. 

Mackie is one of those characters that was interesting, and I felt like I should totally connect with, but I just didn't. Maybe it's because he was so distant. Maybe it was the constant complaining about the people of his town being fake, or the constant lust after that one school girl. Or the weird back and forth with him and Tate. I don't know what it was, but I didn't connect as much as I really desperately wanted to.

Overall, I really think a lot of people will enjoy this. It's got some real cool concepts, and some great rock vibes, and interesting characters.