Overall: 4.5/5. This is an absolutely terrifying story where we are the monsters, as we so often are. It warns us of the brainwashing power of the corpocratic dystopia we have the potential to become, and urges that if we don‘t change, this is a very likely portrait of our future. I only hope enough of us will be Violets that we can avert the possibility of this vision‘s fruition.

For the full review, go to bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Originality: 3/5. A twist on a murder mystery. I found that the characters who populate the forest dwelling homeless troupe tested my ability to suspend my disbelief a bit, and they were much more archetypical than the cops, but I imagine Noonan is setting herself up for future books using some of the same characters, so I‘ll give her the benefit of the doubt.

For the full review and others like it, go to bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Originality: 4/5. While dystopian YA is pretty overdone these days, they usually don‘t include MONSTER HUNTING MAGIC HOUNDS. I am a huge sucker for human/magical monster alliances, and this chick ends up with a pack of eleven (roughly thrice the typical pack size) magical creatures who hunt and eat monsters for their sustenance. Call it mary sue if you want, or cliche YA, but I freaking love everything about them.

bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Plot: 4/5. A good old-fashioned American family moves to a new home mysteriously inherited—oh, and the whole town is trying to kill you.

Characters: 4/5. The brother/sister duo in this book are believable in their sibling rivalry.

Style: 3.5/5. The writing was to-the-point and simple, but it's also a book that will increase a kid‘s (or an adult‘s!) vocabulary.

Originality: 4/5. A nice modern spin on a spooky archetype.

Overall: 3.5/5.

This is a thought-provoking and hopeful memoir meets self-help book that I think anyone who has been struggling with moving forward after a diagnosis—or really any kind of negative life event—would benefit from reading.

Overall I thought it was a great book with a few conceptual wild cards and some rough patches that could use smoothing out.

This story is the perfect mixture of monsters, mystery, madness, thrills, chills, and gore—of both the violent and the pestilent varieties. Come for the creatures, stay for the story.

for a full review and others like it go to bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Originality: 5/5. The only thing I‘ve ever read that‘s similar to Neil Gaiman is Neil Gaiman! I love the life and originality he brings to every book he writes, and while there are certain elements within The Graveyard Book that are familiar—ancient occult cults, familiar monsters, legends and myths of ancient burial mounds—he combines them in flawless and fascinating ways to make a world and a work all his own.

bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Plot: 3/5. The story proceeds very steadily—at times almost too steadily. We get every piece of information exactly when we need it, and while the book is technically a mystery, we are never given the chance to piece any of the story together ourselves. A lot of the storyline fell back on genre conventions and cliches, which I found disappointing.

For the full review and others like it go to bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Characters: 5/5. It‘s the same people from book 1 who I loved with some more development into their lives and personalities. I still like the female characters more than Control, who was whiny and confused. I kept rooting for Ghost Bird to ditch him and go live in the woods with Grace. I want someone to write fanfiction with these characters for me is what I‘m telling you.
for the full review go to bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Originality: 5/5. I can honestly say I‘ve never read anything like any of Stant Litore‘s work, in the best possible way. He is fiercely feminist and non-euro-centric in the best ways, and every story is a refreshing new perspective from the mainstream.

for more reviews like this one, go to bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Originality: 2/5. This is straight up a classic demonic possession story. And that‘s not a bad thing—we like archetypes for a reason—but she didn‘t really compensate for the tried-and-true story type with really interesting or really unsettling elements, she just stuck to the tried-and-true, which made it a bit lackluster.

for the full review and others like it, go to bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Overall: 3.5/5. A solid and surprisingly enjoyable historical creative nonfiction with almost the perfect mix of fact and fiction. While a bit tedious at times, it was a really well put together book and I liked it quite a lot.

For the full review and others like it, go to bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Style: 3/5. Less clinical and sharp than Annihilation, Authority gets a bit repetitive. Vandermeer has specific phrases and words he likes to use, and overuses them pretty badly. Control‘s point of view is less engaging than The Biologist‘s, and since the story takes place outside of Area X, the glimmering imagery that made book 1 so riveting was noticeably lacking here.

for more reviews like this one, check out Bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Style: 5/5. Nick Cutter‘s style is sensual and descriptive often to the point of being shudder-inducing or sickening in moments of body horror. He obviously does his research, and the gut-wrenching realism of these elements pair nicely with the more fantastical aspects. It is always a roller coaster of highs and lows with Nick, and the tension is held at violin-string intensity until the reader practically snaps.

bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Originality: 5/5. I have never read anything like this ever, and that‘s freaking awesome! While it draws on ideas and tropes we are familiar with—a military state, mysterious creatures, mind control, possibly time travel?—it combines them in a way that is eternally surprising and refreshing.

Soon to be a major motion picture! For the rest of this review and more like it, check out Bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

For a full review and more like it, go to bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Style: 4/5. Few horror novels try to make you laugh, but I found Levin‘s style funny and engaging where it needed to be, and intense and stressful where it should have been. The foreshadowing is sprinkled throughout in the perfect amount, and we really feel like we are going through the trauma with Rosemary, whose point of view the narrative follows in third person.

For a full review and others like it, check out Bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Plot: 3/5. While the overarching plot was pretty solid (if a little predictable), the out-of-nowhere plot twists hampered more than helped the flow of the story and made it hard to believe, much less to be scared by.

For the full review and others like it, check out Bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Overall: 4.5/5 I have never been as frightened by a book as I was by The Deep, and that alone impressed me. While it has its problems, the overall experience of the book was great spine-tingling fun, and I would definitely recommend it to any reader looking to scare the sleep away for a day or two.

Overall: 3.75/5. The witty and charming characters, written with wit and charm, are not enough to carry the lackluster narration, and the novel drags despite its pleasant populace. Murder on the Orient Express is a fine mystery novel from a classic author, but nothing to rave about.

for a full review check out Bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

For the full review go to Bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Plot: 2/5. Overall I was very underwhelmed. This story was not scary at all, really, and did a poor job of building suspense for the characters. The actual plot points of the story were lost in the poetics of the telling. It may be arrogant of me to tell Ray Bradbury anything, but more of a balance between style and story would have been very beneficial to this book.

For the full review, go to bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Originality: 5/5. I have personally grown tired of dystopian novels, but this breathes new and interesting life into both the monster/alien/eldritch horror and the dystopian future genres. If you want a blood pumping thriller unlike anything you‘ve ever read, this is the book for you!

For a full review check out bergenreadsbooks.wordpress.com

Overall: 2.5/5. I probably wouldn‘t recommend this book to anyone. It wasn‘t terrible, but it wasn‘t particularly enjoyable. If I had been reading the physical book rather than the audiobook, I probably would have put it down before I finished it.