Kicking off my horror book club next year with something I picked - a fleshy tale of cowboys going into the desert to come back different. It's good!

Matthew, I don't think you actually understand the tenor of the Criterion Collection if you think it wouldn't appreciate A Muppet Christmas Carol. Subscribe to the Channel, you fictional character!

I think people on both sides of the genre aisle like to say that horror romance cannot be a thing. I love both genres, so I disagree! I think this one balances the two genres pretty well (though I am also a person who often thinks horror isn't scary, nor that it has to be). I really loved this!

Another beautiful mid-century historical from Cat Sebastian - building a life in wreckage, in a burning world, finding beauty and hope where you can, and building from there

Gotta say, I didn't read the blurb before ordering this (because such things aren't necessary between me and Cat Sebastian), so when I made it to the reveal of what Nathanial's running from I thought "What a twist!" It's... it's on the back of the book, you goof

I am going to just assume that the little snips or Star Trek in this book are just to get the reader hyped for Star Shipped next year. (I am -very- hyped for Star Shipped)

Crossing all my fingers for Samuel Rain to get a book

One of these E-Psy's egg is cracking, hmmmmmm?
(Not like that)
(Unless...?)

Writing on this one is repelling me like a magnet. Least I can get it off the shelf!

Light pick here, it's a smooth read, but I Did Not remember this girl. Sorry Nadya! Beneath a Sugar Sky was 7 years ago!

This mfer is named Riker West??

Listening to my first "duet" audiobook and exclaiming in real disgust the first time the actual duet thing happens. Do people really not like the alternating narrators doing both voices? This is jarring. It also feels cowardly, to me? Let every gender do every genders' voice!

Honestly, the fact that this was a previous pick from my local romance book club should have prepared me for how fully average I found this book.

I think the issue with 3rd act break ups is not their very existence, but how close they come to the end sometimes. There 7% of the book left when the blow up happens, which is maybe too little time to have to repair the drama and to give the happy ending.

I'm off to Halloween Horror Nights tomorrow, and I am just there for the outside the house vibes and hanging out, so I've downloaded some Halloween-y books on the phone for when people are going through houses.

Do you want a second person fairytale retelling that's full of trauma? This might be your only option, but good news: it's good!

It is WILD to be reading a modern contemporary where one of the leads clearly has undiagnosed ADHD and, at 40%, no one has even brought up that this is a possibility. They're all just mean to her instead!

There are 2 malevolent Jasons in this book #ThatsComicsBaby

Sometimes this book got at what it was reaching for, and sometimes it was clouded by 80s conceptions and language, and sometimes it sank like a stone under the exoticising racism and transphobia of something written by a rich white lady from New Orleans. A roller coaster, to be sure.

I will say this about this weirdly constructed book - the vacation interlude sure makes me want to take a rich fuck vacation, a thing that I will -never- be able to do

The male performance on this book (playing at 1.3× speed) sounds like me half-assing my Rod Serling impression

Fascinating to get to the modern era in this book, because it makes me wonder which of these movies will endure the way ones from previous decades have. Like, I don't think a second edition of this book in 30 years would have The Conjuring in it (the way it didn't bother with, say, Friday the 13th) (no offense to either series) (okay, some offense to Friday the 13th)

Weird sideswipe at Re-Animator and Evil Dead in the discussion of 28 Days Later?? (Also, I don't think either of those are zombie movies, but I am admittedly persnickity about those 2 movies, my beloveds)

Gotta say, I have never considered that Leatherface has 2 faces - I have always assumed that he just isn't great at applying makeup for dinner!

I'm listening to this not as a titular weenie, but as someone who watches A Lot of horror; so, not to be a jerk, but Psycho doesn't -really- come up much in the discussion of proto-slashers. It's going to be an interesting listen!

What kind of man, indeed!!!! (I love books)

Listen, not every book needs to be as big a pervert as I am, but this sex scene (which avoided both directly referring to, or even alluding to, genitals) was real... weird.

I'm seeing the next book is about Vasic, but how can that be, when he and Aden are already married??? (What I would give for queerness and transness here in the cishet mines.)

Gotta saw, when Kaleb got his first name and I got the feeling he'd be a lead someday, I was kinda doubtful. It speaks to the strength of the series that by the time I got here I could understand it, and the strength of this book that it totally works. Less sure about the series' preoccupation with the romantic feelings of teenage girls towards adult men, but you win some and you lose some.

Kaleb Krycheck wearing -cargo pants- is a hilarious image to me

My Scar reading has sped up, because it's going well so far. Here's 2 things I've thought about this morning:
1) this book could pull the exact same twist that Perdido Street Station did, with Tanner. Please don't, book.
2) hearing about the different lands makes me think very strongly of the Wayward Children series

I have made it to the bombs dropping segment and I gotta say, I don't love reading it right now! It kinda makes me feel sick!!

It's a novella, so any amount of discussion of how human beings are biologically incapable of interacting with vampires without becoming hateful is going to tip the mix. And it comes up A Lot! What do you call it when your chosen family tries to kill you? I don't know, but I am not a fan.

I read Perdido Street Station 9 years ago, and I found a reveal in it so off-putting that I have read any Miéville since. However, I want to try listening to a podcast (shocking!) and their first topic is The Scar, so, with trepidation, I'm reading it. Slowly.

A short, gorgeous book. So many nonbinary feelings! So good to know that what I feel, I don't feel alone!

Sometimes you try to investigate a new shared author series, and you see a book up for pre-order, and it's a polyamorous riff on Ratatouille (don't worry, the rat appears to be a man transformed into a rat by a military experiment), and you think to yourself 'Books are incredible.'
(Book by G. M. Fairy)

Got further in this than I have in awhile, but I still cannot engage with trad pub single POV. I'll keep testing it periodically! Sorry, perfectly nice book!

Every time Amara gets mentioned, I'm pumping my fist and chanting Amara! Amara! Love that bad vibes lady.

Kaleb out here, hanging out on the actual edge of a cliff, the world's biggest drama queen

Almost made a so-so before that wild ass reveal that brings in some transphobia without seemingly understanding that trans people are real. The man needs and editor BADLY

I decided to experiment with the sort of romance novel I think of as a "porch book" aka a book with a porch on the cover, and I really tried, but so much of it is just repelling me like a magnet - this, I think, is what I expected romance novels to be when I decided (as a teen) that I wouldn't be reading them.

Wait, at nearly 60% this book is deciding to propose that social media is like cults from the 70s, specifically the cult that has 100% already caused supernatural shit to happen?? This is only my second Nevill book, but I don't think he's great at writing characters getting upset, because it's always about the wrong thing.

Picked this up from Hoopla because I saw one of the leads described as a "horror author", but this guy just dismissed the very idea of writing supernatural horror. I hope his ass gets haunted.

I do not think this burgeoning subgenre is for me: too much cross over with "literary horror", too slow a burn. A single nightmare is the first 60 pages of a horror novel (while the rest is a basically straightforward family drama) just... isn't enough for me.