A woman returns to pack up her childhood home while her estranged (and awful) dying mother is wasting away in the living room. Yeah, that's not creepy.
With flashbacks to her childhood, we learn why her Mom & Dad didn't win Parents of the Year.
And if the cover of the book wasn't any indication, there is something creepy AF going on in the house.
Loved the parallel timelines, but unsure how I feel about the twist at the end.
A good Halloween read

😂 😂 😂

This would have been 5 stars but I guessed the major plot twist by page 20, so..
If you‘re looking for a Halloween read this may be the book for you!
On a dark and stormy night, a dysfunctional family gathers at the isolated home of their matriarch to celebrate her 80th birthday, which of course is on...Halloween!
And then things...happen.
While a bit far-fetched, this nod to Agatha Christie is a fun & scary mystery with twists & turns galore.

3.5 stars
This love letter to her father, author Peter Straub (who died this month), was a fun take on the "if you could go back and time and change things, would you?" trope.
I love these types of books, but for me there was too much back and forth and repetitive scenarios.
Nor did it pack the emotional punch I was expecting.

I much prefer his horror novels so I approached this fantasy book with some trepidation. Then I remembered how much I loved The Talisman and 11/22/63. As far as I'm concerned this book ranks right up there with them.
Could not put it down and didn't want it to end.
Once again King transports the Constant Reader into two parallel worlds both rife with mystery, danger and magic.
And yes, I cried in the end and then took my elderly dog for a walk.

RIP Hilary Mantel 😢

And now this super terrifying book is a movie from M. Night Shyamalan.
People...Just stay out of the woods!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wiBHEACNHs&t=159s

“We can afford neither defective space-time filaments, nor any further drops in donut sales.”

I know I‘m really in the minority here, but this was not for me.
Pros: Great LGBTQ and Asian representation. Great cover. And donuts. Lots of donuts.
Cons: Overly long, too much plot crammed into one book, disjointed and jarring writing style
I almost DNF this book, but I was too close to the end. An end which I thought would never come.

That was fast!

I waited 3 days past the release date for this to come in as my local bookstore sold out and I wanted to support them rather than Jeff Bezos. Hopefully Jeff will be okay.

The best tennis player in the world comes out of retirement when her record is broken. With her adoring and equally driven father (a once famous tennis player in his own right) as her coach, 37 year old Carrie Soto, in the face of sexism and ageism, sets out to reclaim her title.

I have to hand it to TJR. She has created a brusque character, whom I can‘t help but root for, in a setting I couldn‘t care less about, and yet, I was riveted!

A modern update of Rear Window about an alcoholic actress grieving the loss of her husband who drowned in the lake at their vacation home. Naturally she takes refuge there and starts to spy on her neighbors.
A suspenseful page turner with plenty of twists and turns(one of which annoyingly appears out of the blue) that will keep you guessing until the end.

A few minor issues aside, I found this to be an enjoyable story where the the character that ties everything together is an octopus. Yes, that may sound silly, but it works.

Carrie Soto Is HERE!

When I heard that Seth describes his interaction with my former boss, I just had to read this. To my delight, he writes about TWO of my former bosses and even I make a brief albeit anonymous appearance.
This was a quick & funny read about Seth getting high for the first time, interactions with celebrities, getting high after school, Jewish Summer camp, getting high before a meeting with Spielberg, meeting your heroes, and getting high.

In my eyes, David Sedaris can do no wrong and is always a pleasure to read.
From laugh out loud moment to poignant ones, he covers the entire gamut.
Stories about his crazy family, his dying father, book tours and travel in our pre and post-Covid world... and teeth.

I‘ve been immortalized albeit anonymously!
Yeah, I‘ll take it!😂

"Miracles are not without their price, my darling."
Another creepy page turner from Jennifer McMahon!
A story with dual timelines (1929/ 2019) set in a secluded area in Vermont, centering around two sisters with a complicated relationship, a mysterious house with an eerie pool that may or may not be haunted and a few drownings.
Aside from a couple of unresolved plot points, this beautiful, haunting and nostalgic tale is definitely worth reading!

A thought provoking sci-fi thriller about a man who, not by his own choice, has his genetics upgraded which enables him to do things he never could do before. And everyone lives happily ever after because, really, what could possibly go wrong?

Another irresistible page turner from Julie Clark! I knocked out the first 200 pages in one day as I could not put this down. While it didn't have as many twists and turns as I was expecting, this story of two women, one a con artist and the other a reporter, definitely kept me entertained and eager to see how this tale of righteous vengeance played out.

As a lifelong fan of the Universal Monster canon, I was excited to read this fictionalized take on the days leading up to the making of Frankenstein. Junior Laemmle wanted to make the movie, his father and founder of Universal,did not. The story dramatizes the battle between father and son as well as the two actors (Karloff and Lugosi) vying for the role of the Monster. Unless you are a fan of the genre, you might be hard pressed to enjoy it.

First published about a decade after her death, this felt like I was reading Marilyn Monroes's personal diary. In it she recounts her early childhood, her views on men and women, the industry and it's inability to take her seriously as an actress, her one-sided "feud" with Joan Crawford (my favorite part), her marriage to Joe DiMaggio and abruptly ends around the time she married Arthur Miller.

At 700+ pages, one should get immense credit for creating a propulsive page turner such as BLONDE. A hybrid of fact &fiction, Oates has crafted a mythic & poetic story about Monroe from her innocent & heartbreaking beginnings, through the sexist &misogynistic studio system, and to the well-known tragic end.Through it all, Oates dispels the misconception of Monroe as just another "dumb blonde" by revealing the intelligence &ambition of Norma Jean.

Well that gave me chills....

A wholly unique experience when it comes to the narrative style and execution. However, there's a lot of internal dialogue going on (it is presented as a memoir...no, it's a novel...no, it's a memoir!) and not a lot seems to be happening. There's a few creepy moments and some fantastic LOL one-liners and barbs by the person (who I won't name) marking up the book in red ink.
But ultimately, in the end, it just didn't do it for me.

No one in my family took the hint…

If you are a “Monster Kid” like me or a child of the 70‘s (um…also me) then look no further for your next read! Taking place over two parallel time lines, this is a gripping tale of a child abducting monster, a creepy old institution, and a monster hunter trying to piece it all together…and nothing is as it seems!
And as an added bonus, I have a favorite new author in Jennifer McMahon!

The latest addition to my physical TBR pile!

For Pride month I picked this classic which I had never read. A moving examination of repression, internalized homophobia and the resulting consequences in 1950‘s Paris.

3.5 stars for me.
2 brutal murders set 15 years apart. One takes place in a Blockbuster video (remember those?)the other in an ice cream shop.
My issue was that there were a ton of characters that all had the same "voice" which made it difficult to discern who was who. Although, this could just be a "me" issue. Lots of red herrings in addition to what felt like incomplete storylines that left more questions than answers.
Yet, it's a page-turner!

My physical TBR stack is growing.

A little light vacation read! ?

If you read Bugliosi's Helter Skelter and think you know what happened on that tragic night in August 1969...you don't.
A blistering exposé that shows the lengths Bugliosi went to in order to create the narrative we've all come to believe as the definitive truth while also examining the various elements & events that were conveniently overlooked.

Don‘t mess with Doris Day!
😂😂

At 622 pages, I thought this would be a slog to get through but I couldn't have been more wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed this book that weaves 3 different stories over 3 different timelines. A love letter to stories, libraries and our own humanity and how they are all interwoven within each other.

I can see why people like this book but it just wasn‘t for me. I felt the characters took certain risks that made no sense with an ending that was a bit anti-climatic.
Oh well.
Next!

Wonderful coming of age/mystery from debut author Brendan Slocumb.
A stolen $10 million dollar Stradivarius belonging to a Black violinist frames this coming of age story about overcoming racism & prejudice while pursuing a career in the pigment challenged world of classical music.
Loved this story! Initially I felt many of the incidents of racism were overblown & almost cartoonish...then I read the Afterword only to learn they actually happened.

After a school in Tennessee banned the book, I went out and purchased my own copy.
First graphic novel I've ever read (My husband teasingly would ask, "How's your comic book?", to which I would reply, "Oh,my Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel? It's amazing!").
With Jews depicted as mice & Nazis depicted as cats, this heartbreaking memoir about a son's quest to document his father's experience in Nazi occupied Poland deserves all the accolades.

All the stars!
It's a shame it took me 3 years to finally get around to reading this page turner, but I'm just glad I finally did!
A story that examines the relationship between fathers and sons....oh, and serial killers.
There were moments that were truly frightening where I found myself holding my breath! And yet, there were moments that were extremely poignant that had me drying my tears.
A must read!

The fact that the Road of Bones itself is (tragically) a real location where Soviet prisoners perished in the bitter cold and would be buried right there on the very road they were building lends an additional layer of creepiness to this story about a documentary TV producer & his pal who head to Siberia to explore the haunted Road of Bones.
Nothing good happens. Lots of weird encounters. And it's f#*^ing COLD!
A quick, fun and scary read.

I LOVED Needless Street but was underwhelmed by this one. That's not to say it's bad, I just didn't find it as engaging, but I was invested enough into the story that I wanted answers!
I didn't find this tale about a dysfunctional family particularly scary, but rather disturbing and quite gross (Maggots!). The fictional story within the story seemed unnecessary and the cliffhanger ending was annoying. Trigger warnings for child/animal abuse.

More exquisite prose from Young Mungo that just pulled at my heartstrings...

A beautiful, disturbing & heart-wrenching story of two teenage boys from the streets of Glasgow, who fall in love & must keep their relationship hidden from the world around them.
While similar to Shuggie Bain ("write what you know!"), Young Mungo elevates the work of Douglas Stuart to a new level. Fully formed, dimensional characters that practically leap off the page alongside beautiful prose & a story that will have you riveted to the end.

Vern, a pregnant 15 year old, escapes from a cult leaving her family behind. She gives birth, survives in the woods and then...things start to get really weird. To say anymore, would spoil the story.
While I didn't love this book as much as I was hoping to, I was drawn into Vern's journey of self-discovery and the utterly bizarre world in which she inhabits.

Great to meet Julie Clark and hear her speak about her book at today‘s LA Times Festival of Books 2022 at USC.
Lots of fun!

"If we don't tell our own stories, we'll never take control of the narrative."
Two women, each trying to escape their lives for their own reasons, switch identities at an airport.
What could possibly go wrong? Well, a plane crash for one. (not a spoiler).
A fun, twisty & suspenseful page turner about women speaking their truth in a world where they aren't always believed.

While the setting, based around the real-life political climate of 1970‘s Mexico, proved interesting, the story took some effort for me to finish.
A tad cliche...An innocent woman (secretary by day and lover of romantic comics by night) becomes entangled in a search for her neighbor and some missing rolls of film that are highly coveted by various government factions.
In short, a somewhat predictable tale where not a lot happens.
3/5 stars

Who knew a time traveling saga that spans centuries could be written in under 250 pages? A beautiful, moving and imaginative tale that asks questions about our reality and our relationships with one another. I loved this to the moon (where there are 3 colonies) and back!

Ugh!
I felt the author was trying to prove he can write a story by using 101 words where just 10 would suffice. I'd find myself reading paragraphs and then have to stop and wonder what is this word salad I am trying to swallow?

The White Witch story was probably my favorite.
Then we get to the porn store where the language shifts to some kind of faux Knights of the Roundtable banter.
Then I got to the chapter on some Boy king & I peace'd out.

Ghosts? ✅
Serial killer ✅
Spooky house? ✅
Another gripping paranormal thriller from @simonestjames While I enjoyed The Sundown Motel more, this was still an entertaining read with compelling characters and lots of twists and turns. A hard one to put down!