A dreamy novella about a group of childhood friends collectively remembering their childhood in 1980s Chile under Pinochet's military dictatorship and their growing realization of the violence around them.

I had to do some reading up on this as I knew nothing of this place and era. Really upsetting seeing children's childhoods cut short as adult things invade.

Sleepy puppy.
It's a bummer that it doesn't look like Killjoy is gunna do anymore for this series, but it was fun while it lasted! This one finds Danielle Cain and gang in small town Montana where some folks have come back to life. The vibe of this series was just so cool. Killjoy described it as anarchist Scooby-Doo and that's all I can ask for.

Such a quick, cool read. Danielle Cain is a wanderer, but sets her sights on Freedom, Iowa to get some answers about a friend of hers that killed himself. There she finds a sorta free utopia where the law of the land is a 3 horned deer that slaughters anyone who takes advantage of anyone else.
For this being so short, the world and people in it feel pretty full/real. Already started the next one!
Also, such a pretty cover!

It's a little late, but here are my stats from June! It was a decent reading month for me! And the things I'm reading now are pretty good, so that's a plus.

Also, happy fourth for everyone that celebrates fireworks day 🎆

I've never read anything that so aptly describes my feelings. Damn.

Thank you @Endowarrior21 for all the neat resin things! The bookmark is really pretty. My daughter already bust into the candy 😂 excited to get to the books!

And thanks @paperwitchs for hosting #SpookySummerSwap !! #SpookySummer

Pretty cool and weird. The creatures looked neat and interested to see where the next volume goes as this left at a sorta cliff hanger 🙄

The library had a lot of novellas today! I went a little overboard lol not sure where to start.. maybe just the top down?

I haven't read any of Killadelphia, but I've put them all on hold as this tie-in series was just so cool! Nita fights demons (both in and out) with the help of her ghost brother, a reluctant cop, and someone I wasn't expecting but was neat to see.

The art is great - really gross, splattery deaths and that gritty, dark feeling over all that is my jam. I'll have to keep my eyes out for another volume!

Wow, this was rough but very engaging! I couldn't stop listening and went back and forth on liking and hating Rob. But in the end, I liked her despite all her faults and I guess that's the point of the book.

Sundial sounds like it was probably pretty cool in its heyday, sans the dog experiments I mean.

Beth, a burnout trying to get back on track, is housesitting on the Oregon coast when she meets Mike, a man at the bottom of a pit of depression. They hook up and wake up to a world changed in bizarre and disturbing ways. And then, they get trapped on a beach with an assortment of bloodthirsty monsters.

I liked this a lot. I knew all the places they talked about and felt the characters were relatable/likeable. The creatures sounded cool/scary.

#SpookySummerSwap package is on its way as of yesterday, @EndoWarrior21 !! Hope it gets there alright 👍

1. I think technically author is published and writer is not, but I use them interchangeably so 🤷‍♀️
2. Yeah, I am, but it's a little stalled right now.

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

Mothers are the real MVPs here. Sho's mom kept the faith.

This picture is all that's left of the misplaced kids, of over 700 at the start, after insane adults, bloodthirsty monsters, hunger, thirst, medical emergencies, and unhinged kids wrecked through.

Unsure if that's enough diversity to restart humanity but at least they learned that lesson hard.

At it's heart, this is ecohorror, a warning. Or maybe prophecy 🤷‍♀️

Just a volume of suffering. We get more of the why, but good lord the kids go lord of the flies to the extreme. Also, some crazy creatures!

Can someone make this a movie? Because there's some things I'd love to see on screen!

Louise is caring for her husband who is dying of a mysterious disease that has ravaged his body. He was a doctor, she a nurse, but neither can do more than accept the inevitability of his condition.

Interesting body horror short. Would be interested in reading more by the author!

I mean, it is an interesting idea: a whole elementary school disappearing with its inhabitants to a future of just sand. The sort of natural instincts of people thrown into unfamiliar and terrifying situations play out here with many deaths and chaos. The art style is definately 70s manga and the attitudes towards women around that time too 🙄 but it was fun and I already have the next one!

1. Just catching some alone time, if even for a few minutes, preferably outside.
2. Sometimes. Would love to more!
3. Depends on when I'm sleeping. During the day for work, total quiet. At night it's random.

#ThoughtfulThursday @MoonWitch94

This is definately dated by how attitudes towards women/sex and tech are displayed and it honestly wasn't scary, but I liked it. It's basically Asakawa traveling to beautiful places and researching in the digging through physical files and going to the library kind of way. I already have the 2nd book and I'm pretty curious to see how they break or if they do break the curse later on. Also heard this series gets weirdly scifi, so wanna see that.

This book isn't listed yet, unfortunately.

This felt a lot like Gary Paulsen, with the adventure/survival aspects of Tyler entering this military-guarded, experiment-strewn forest in search of his father. But about 80% in, it definitely moves into adult territory and is a weird splatterfest. Bleak. Ending was one of two options I considered. Unsure if the other one would've been better.

Anyway, willing to pick up something else by this author.

Is this photo in poor taste?

Aoyama, 7 years a widow, decides he wants to marry again. Through a scheme with a friend, he meets Yamasaki Asami who is painfully beautiful and seems perfect. He becomes enamored with her, despite warnings from everyone that meets her.

TWs in comments, but this was as expected. Quite a lot of build-up to a somewhat shocking but predictable end. Watching movie soon.

Tagged book isn't the correct one as this one isn't in the database (just submitted it).

Was only a buck on kindle and it just sounded interesting. So far, the writing isn't super jamming for me but it's got me into figuring out wtf is going on. I do really like survival stories and this pairs it with horror elementals (apparently). We'll see!

Holy shit that was terrifying!

Science's new innovation has unexpected and disturbing results, flooding out over a small Oregon town.

I loved Lucy. She was a perfect main character, deeply flawed but brave. I so loved Brewer, too. 😭 the violence in this is just unreal and grotesque, but really did contribute to the plot. Just keep that in mind, I guess.

This was another long overdue Netgalley read.. deff need to find more from Johnson 😱

As always with Junji Ito, beautiful and weird.

Remina is a girl and a world-eating planet. When the world eater comes for Earth, people decide killing the girl will appease the world eater and save them.

Mass hysteria ensues and Remina spends most of the book running away from crazy people, but I think the ending was so satisfying 😌

I got this from Netgalley as an ARC eons ago and finally got around to reading it. I really regret not reading it sooner!

Carrot, fresh from a divorce and living in the spare room at her uncle's oddity museum, finds a portal in the back of the building that leads to another, strange world. This world seems empty, except for the willows, but Carrot and her friend soon find out that it is very much occupied.

Very creepy and fun book!

Three short stories about haunted houses, of a sort. Full of melancholie and a bit eerie. I liked the middle story, The Ancestors, best with it's creepy night toys. But my favorite quote came from the third story, Florrie:
"Frank was overwhelmed by an unwelcome notion of age, its indignities, its steady erasure of who you had once been and the recycling of your tiny former position in the world."

I finished this a couple days ago. Couldn't get everything put in words. Koja just has a way of putting you into these people on the fringe of society, feeling all their mixed up emotions. I kept expecting supernatural elements, like The Cypher, but there isn't. I was told this was Sapphic and yeah, I guess it is but expect no happy endings. I really want to see Tess's metal statues.. the first show before it all started going crazy sounded cool.

I'm still around, reading the tagged book slowly and a few library books. I've been super distracted by movies recently... pictured is just a few, I've watched over 30 this month so far 😅

5 outta 5 ⭐

😭😍 I really loved this! This is a sorta reimagining of Wu Zetian, an Empress in China during the 600s, except set in a scifi world with dope mechas (that disgustingly sacrifice girls to run). Zetian is relentlessly feminist throughout and made me mutter hell yes at many points. AND there's a polygamous relationship, which I loved. I called the twist at the end way early, but very stoked to get the sequel and see wtf she does!

Reading goal is 50 books (@ least), one nonfiction a month, several challenges, and gunna focus more on my physical books!

Hopeful!

The tagged book is ok. I'm listening to it, but dunno if I'll finish it before it returns to the library (and dunno if I'll recheck it out) 🤷‍♀️

#ThoughtfulThursday @MoonWitch94

Has anyone done cross-stitch before? I got this kit for Xmas... we'll see how it goes! I also picked up two library holds - these are 2 of 3 of my January TBR!

It's so rainy right now, perfect reading weather! 🌧📚

3 outta 5 ⭐

This was cute. I appreciated the like community/family aspects brought up here. Mark and Brinkley were a pretty good match. I really wish it had delved a bit more into Margo (wow, did I hate her) and I was so expecting a metal detector scene with a particular metal thing at the end lol
Also, I'd not go for the audiobook. This narrator was not great 😬

3.5 outta 5 ⭐

Watching Ken's slow transformation is stressful. Obviously he's becoming more badass, but at what cost? I suppose that's the point. There's an extremely rough torture scene in this one and while Yamori gets his just dues, Ken is absolutely gunna be a different character after this.

3 out of 5 ⭐

Absolutely beautiful art here, but just a mediocre MG read about confidence and communication. I think the ending wrapped up a bit too neatly, the adult characters changing their minds to really just move the plot along and not in a very organic way.

Week 5 total: 4963

Grand total: 15045

#MistletoeManiacs #WinterGames2021 @Clwojick

🎄

So much fun! Happy new years, everyone!

Week five game! I got 485 words and could've kept going but meh. My bookish goal for 2022 is to read 50+ books and get a nonfiction in monthly!

#MistletoeManiacs #WinterGames2021 @Clwojick

🎄

4951pts.

So in 2022 I'm cutting myself slack with these. Lots of repeats because I'm only planning on 4 reads in January, but gave myself vague ones for all the randos I inevitably read 😅

#BookSpinBingo #BookSpin #DoubleSpin @TheAromaofBooks

This one was also very funny and interesting!

https://youtu.be/TxRsUCIVG3w

#MistletoeManiacs #WinterGames2021 @Clwojick

🎄

6pts

So what I'm getting is they'd be dead lol

https://youtu.be/qgd_V5WqLjg

#MistletoeManiacs #WinterGames2021 @Clwojick

🎄

6pts.

I think of these # 2, 4, and 10 are probably the best, but really it's in no particular order and I couldn't make a list of 21 😬

#Top21of21 #Top10of21

1. the tagged book was so adorable! Some other books I read were fun, but this one is a clear winner 🧡

2. writing 2022 on everything at work 😂 I don't know, honestly.. getting started on all the reading/movie challenges I have planned?

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

I always think Christmas trees look a little ominous from below 🤷‍♀️

In any case, week 4 total is 965 points!

#MistletoeManiacs #WinterGames2021 @Clwojick

🎄

Playing catch up, sorry! Two bingos I got!

#MistletoeManiacs #WinterGames2021 @Clwojick

41pts.

Got a bingo with kid's books! The tagged book the kiddo got today and I'm not a huge fan of Daniel Tiger, but it was cute. Rest read over the last couple of days tagged below!

#MistletoeManiacs #WinterGames2021 @Clwojick

🎄

146pts.

+currently watching Frosty the Snowman!

#TeamMovie #MistletoeManiacs #WinterGames2021 @Clwojick

🎄

36pts.

Merry Christmas all! Here's our tree the night before all those presents got shredded lol

#XmasTreeContest #MistletoeManiacs #WinterGames2021 @Clwojick

11pts.

Lots of movies, most Xmas (6) and a few even OK! :)

#MistletoeManiacs #WinterGames2021 @Clwojick

🎄

31pts.

Oh, this was good! Some of the stories were stronger than others (I particularly liked the swamp beast one) but they were all creepy and looked great!

🎄

71pts.

I really want to add this cute mushroom picture book to my bookcase. I am member of the mushroom fan club! They're fascinating and weird and I love keeping my eyes peeled for them while hiking/camping. 🍄🍄

🎄

11pts

This was too cute! Garlic was very relatable, but Carrot was freaking adorable 😍 very sweet story about humanoid veggies and a vampire, not judging people before you know them, and being brave. Really loved the art in here, too!

#MistletoeManiacs #WinterGames2021 @Clwojick

🎄

11pts