Welcome to Litsy!

I didn't ready any horror in October, but my first book of November is.🙃 I started it last night.

5🌟/5🌟

Happy Halloween/Blessed Samhain!! 🎃👻🖤🧡

I don't really read horror books. I'm not sure if I just don't get on with the genre or I didn't get on with this.

The premise was great, the execution less so. I found this so boring. The first half of the book was painfully slow though it did pick up later on.

Eh 🤷🏼‍♀️. I had the worst time getting into this story. It‘s very dark and depressing and was a slower burn than I was really in the mood for. The ending did pick up somewhat and had a few good surprises thrown in there so I am glad I finished it. Still…possibly just not my cup of tea. Beautiful cover though! 🌟🌟🌟

It's too cold today to sit outside but luckily it's cute inside and my goofy dog likes to be cozy. #dogsoflitsy

Just couldn‘t get into this book about an Asian woman during the pandemic, listening constantly to disparaging remarks, cleaning apartments of murdered women, seeing ghosts and footprints and bite marks. I gave it a hundred pages, but it felt like more of the same.

This book did a great job talking about what fear does and can turn into. We follow Cora, a young Asian woman, living in NYC during the pandemic, trying to survive all that someone saying “China virus” has brought to her. It‘s a lot. Violence, gore. The feeling of being suffocated by fear. The constant feeling of not being safe. You‘d think the horror in here would be the hungry ghosts of Chinese culture but it‘s not. Not even close. Pick!

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. This is a mix of mystery and horror, and it does for me exactly what I love horror to do: show us parts of ourselves we'd rather not face. The novel brings us back to the early months of the pandemic and highlights the ways that covid brought out negative tendencies in United Statesian culture. There's a pretty glaring error relating to propane tanks, but that's the only bit that took me out of the action.

I decided to bail at page 102. I gave it a chance but the book just became more and more boring to me. I didn't like the unreliable narrator. It was like a boring stream of consciousness. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen. I was so disappointed because the description sounded great. The book didn't live up to it.

Baker absolutely knocked this book out of the park. It‘s dark, it‘s timely, there‘s genuine love in it, and genuine frustration too. I often find third person narration more tricky in audiobooks because there‘s more distance between me and the author in my mind. Not this time though - I was right there every step of the way. One of the best cold opens I can remember reading and surely one of my favourite listens this year. Huge thanks #netgalley

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Social horror steeped in reality, racial violence, humanity, and tradition. Hungry Ghosts tell the story of Asian hate in NYC during the pandemic. I‘m honestly so tired of pandemic novels, but this is nothing like the others. Nothing. It‘s brilliant. Creative, compelling, gruesome, and affecting. Can‘t stop thinking about it.

Walking while my (almost) 13 year old has soccer training. Peep the mallard 🦆 just casually hanging out in a huge puddle left by recent storms.

This book, y‘all. It‘s something. #audiowalk

Early in the COVID pandemic, Cora‘s sister is brutally killed in front of her in an anti-Asian hate crime. She then becomes a crime scene cleaner and starts getting visited by ghosts. I was initially put off by the title, but I‘m glad I got over that, as I found this really absorbing.

I thought this book was quite good and quite gross. It's a horror novel, but it also illustrates Asian hates crimes at the height of the pandemic. The book was definitely super dark, but it was unique, and I really liked it.

Tagged was my favorite of the month and the best horror I‘ve read in some time. Filled with both social and gory horror moments, it is a sucker punch of a read. Only read if you are a fan of actual horror, as there are some very graphic and gross scenes.

This novel shocked and terrified me, but not in the ways you may think. I knew there was was racism towards Asians during the major COVID outbreak. However, I was not aware of the extent. It reminds me about the state our country is in now. Where fear hides, often racism follows.
The book was beautifully written, even the gory horror scenes. I also enjoyed the voice of the narrator. 5 stars. Thank you NetGalley!

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A gruesome ghost story with something very real to say. Gripping from the first chapter, the horror aspects sincerely scared me at times, but the sharp social commentary, infusion of Chinese culture, and layers of emotion are what made it the most impactful. #Aardvark #AardvarkBookClub

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.
This is a truly excellent and grotesque horror novel. This takes place in New York during the COVID pandemic. Our main character Cora is an American of Chinese descent who has model wannabe sister and Cora deals with some anxiety and OCD tendencies. When something absolutely horrific happens she falls into a job cleaning up after crime scenes.⬇️

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The tabs say enough 😍😍🖤🖤
#2025release #horror #gore #socialcommentary
Happy Easter! 🐣🐇 💛

“Yuxi He‘s single dead eye stares up at her as if saying, Of course nothing adds up, your mind is a labyrinth and you are lost inside.”

Stocking up on my #Aardvark #AardvarkBookClub books for April! 😍

This was a helluva good horror novel. What I like about horror, is that it asks the reader where the fear is coming from. And in this novel, the horror comes not only from the paranormal, but from the COVID virus and the racist attacks on the Asian community that happened because of the virus. I loved how the author took that reality at the time and mixed it with the Hungry Ghosts legends from China. The best horror has a message.