Welcome to Litsy!

A powerful storm is headed to a small coastal town in California. The rising water brings with it a mysterious squid-like monster that leaves locals and tourists stranded and fighting to survive more than the flood waters. This was a lot of fun. The characters were likable and interesting enough overall and the action was cranked up to make for a thumping good read! I‘ll definitely be reading more from Castsnela‘s Dark Earth Rising series.

I do not like zombies but I‘m glad I picked up this book. It‘s got other supernatural creatures besides zombies. There are vampires, witches, trolls, etc. It was really good on audio. The narrator was so good with voices!

#screamteam #litsyatoz #witchathon #trappedinaspookyhouse

Vada is a professional mourner. She gets paid to go to people‘s funerals and finish their last requests. She meets Dominic on her way into town to meet with someone and they have amazing chemistry. 11 months later, turns out it was his mom. His mom leaves her a cottage to fix up and starts haunting her. Dominic is in grief but he‘s SO mean to Vada when she‘s just following his mom‘s wishes.

#screamteam #trappedinaspookyhouse

I nominated this book for #CampLitsy25 but I‘m actually really glad it wasn‘t picked and I got to read it in Fall.

It starts with a woman faking her death to escape her abusive husband and then goes full throttle into serial killers, feminism, the supernatural, and family ties. I don‘t want to give too much away but I just loved it.

This book, based on the Essex Witch Trials of the 1640s, was truly spellbinding.(Forgive the pun; it‘s the most appropriate word I could think of.) I highly recommend listening on audio. I found the narrator‘s voice to be quietly mesmerizing, and was perfectly suited to this story. Although the story is sad, it conveys a real sense of what it was like to live in England during the witch craze of the Cromwellian era. Petrifying.

#trappedinaspookyhouse #hauntedshelf #screamteam bit torn on this one between a pick & so-so as I really liked the premise and there was a great reveal in the final third, but it dragged a bit and I think would have benefited from a good edit to make it a bit shorter and punchy.

Visiting the Haunted Mansion at Disney World as a 9-year-old is one of my favorite memories. So I enjoyed this graphic novel for the nostalgia. Is this a riveting story? Well, have any of the adaptations been that great? The answer is yes, Muppets Haunted Mansion (also the movie with Eddie Murphy was pretty good). My favorite part of this was the art, especially the pieces between chapters. So fans, it‘s worth it, just don‘t expect too much

This story was more complex than I expected. At first I was creeped out by the family. There's Merricat, who's is 18 but acts like she's maybe 12. There's Uncle Julian droning on about his damn papers and obsessing on the infamous familial incident. However, events occur that make me empathize with the family and truly appreciate the story. I think this story has a lot of hints and layers and deserves a reread at some point.

This is a dark and intense collection of short stories. Some of them involve literal monsters, but in many of the stories, the humans are the monsters or at least the ones commiting monstrous acts. Ballingrud's characters are complex with many of them dealing with loss and having screwed up backgrounds. Favorites included The Good Husband, Sunbleached, Monsters of Heaven, and North American Lake Monsters.

The book had detailed worldbuilding, an interesting magic system, and diverse characters. It is also incredibly slowly paced which is not something I typically enjoy.

It takes awhile for the story to take off but once it did I was more engaged. It's a solid book.

Definitely more for those that like slow, in-depth character driven books.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the #ARC