Sister, Maiden, Monster - Book Review

Sister, Maiden, Monster

by Lucy A. Snyder

What is it about:

Sister, Maiden, Monster is a visceral story set in the aftermath of our planet’s disastrous transformation and told through the eyes of three women trying to survive the nightmare, from Bram Stoker Award-winning author Lucy A. Snyder.

To survive they must evolve.

A virus tears across the globe, transforming its victims in nightmarish ways. As the world collapses, dark forces pull a small group of women together.

Erin, once quiet and closeted, acquires an appetite for a woman and her brain. Why does forbidden fruit taste so good?

Savannah, a professional BDSM switch, discovers a new turn-on: committing brutal murders for her eldritch masters.

Mareva, plagued with chronic tumors, is too horrified to acknowledge her divine role in the coming apocalypse, and as her growths multiply, so too does her desperation.

What did I think of it:

This is such a weird and beautiful read!

After catching a virus Erin and other survivors of the virus start craving brains, while other survivors start craving blood . What at first seems like a viral apocalypse that's creating living zombies and vampires soon starts to get freaky as Erin learns more about herself and her desires.

And then there's Savannah who undergoes yet another transformation.

Only when I got to Mareva's part of the story things started fitting together again and you could view the full scale of this apocalyptic event. 

I was totally on lose footing for most of the story, but enjoying it nonetheless. There were some Lovecraftian themes that gave me some idea where this story was leading to, but I was still surprised by the overall story. No Lovecraftian Mythos prepared me for the horrors Snyder managed to come up with.

All in all a cool, weird, and freaky read. I will have to investigate what else Snyder has written (apart from the Jessie Shimmer series of which I read the first book ages ago).

Why should you read it:

It's totally weird and cool!

The Kaiju Preservation Society - Book Review

 

The Kaiju Preservation Society

by John Scalzi

What is it about:

When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls "an animal rights organization." Tom's team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.

What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble.

It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society that's found its way to the alternate world. Others have, too--and their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.

What did I think of it:

This is a fun and cool read!

Who can resist reading about a society who's observing and preserving dinosaur like monsters? I couldn't anyway!

This book is a fun and fluffy story. There's some problems and bad guys along the way, but mostly it's a very enjoyable fantasy about an alternate world where we can live next to big Godzilla Dinosaurs.

I liked Jamie and his new friends. The bad guy is glaringly obvious, but that's by design. I really enjoyed Scalzi's writing and world building as well. I might have to investigate his other books.

Why should you read it:

Godzilla Dinosaurs!

 

Teaser Tuesdays - The Luminous Dead

 

"You'll clear it?" Gyre laughed sharply, incredulously.

"Right, what would you do otherwise, lock my suit? Take me to court?"

(page 48, The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling)

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, previously hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: - Grab your current read - Open to a random page - Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) - Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their  TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Dead Space - Book Review

  

Dead Space

by Kali Wallace

What is it about:

An investigator must solve a brutal murder on a claustrophobic space station in this tense science fiction thriller from the author of Salvation Day.

Hester Marley used to have a plan for her life. But when a catastrophic attack left her injured, indebted, and stranded far from home, she was forced to take a dead-end security job with a powerful mining company in the asteroid belt. Now she spends her days investigating petty crimes to help her employer maximize its profits. She's surprised to hear from an old friend and fellow victim of the terrorist attack that ruined her life—and that surprise quickly turns to suspicion when he claims to have discovered something shocking about their shared history and the tragedy that neither of them can leave behind.

Before Hester can learn more, her friend is violently murdered at a remote asteroid mine. Hester joins the investigation to find the truth, both about her friend's death and the information he believed he had uncovered. But catching a killer is only the beginning of Hester's worries, and she soon realizes that everything she learns about her friend, his fellow miners, and the outpost they call home brings her closer to revealing secrets that very powerful and very dangerous people would rather keep hidden in the depths of space.

What did I think of it:

I loved Salvation Day, so I got my trotters on Dead Space as well.

And Dead Space is also a really cool SciFi Thriller. 

The action is slow to start, the first part of the book is all investigation and back story about Hester, but I didn't mind as I love Wallace's writing style, and the investigation and Hester's past were really intriguing. 

I loved Hester's colleagues, especially the lead investigator Adisa, so when the action started and things went wrong, you bet I was worried about the outcome and who would or wouldn't survive.

I think I liked Salvation Day just a bit more than Dead Space, but overall I had a really great time with this book and will most definitely read more by Wallace.

Why should you read it:

It's a cool SciFi Thriller

The Scourge Between Stars - Book Review

 

The Scourge Between Stars

by Ness Brown

What is it about:

Ness Brown's The Scourge Between Stars is a tense, claustrophobic sci-fi/horror blend set aboard a doomed generation ship harboring something terrible within its walls.

As acting captain of the starship Calypso, Jacklyn Albright is responsible for keeping the last of humanity alive as they limp back to Earth from their forebears’ failed colony on a distant planet.

Faced with constant threats of starvation and destruction in the treacherous minefield of interstellar space, Jacklyn's crew has reached their breaking point. As unrest begins to spread throughout the ship’s Wards, a new threat emerges, picking off crew members in grim, bloody fashion.

Jacklyn and her team must hunt down the ship’s unknown intruder if they have any hope of making it back to their solar system alive.

What did I think of it:

I love it when a book is exactly what you were hoping for.

Did this story lean on Alien a lot bit: absolutely! Did I care: Nope!

I loved the story, the action, the atmosphere. I even liked most of the characters and was sad to see some of them get killed by the intruder onboard of the ship. 

I haven't been reading a lot lately, but I devoured this novella in one sitting. It's action-packed while still making room for you to bond with the main characters.

I'll be keeping an eye out for more by Ness Brown.

Why should you read it:

It's a cool, action-packed SciFi horror/thriller

Teaser Tuesdays - Grave Destiny

 

The ghost sneered, his face torn between melancholy and rage. "They are cowardly scum and i hope you kill them as surely as i was killed."

(page 103, Grave Destiny by Kalayna Price)

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, previously hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: - Grab your current read - Open to a random page - Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) - Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their  TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

In My TBR - Reluctant Immortals

 

Reluctant Immortals

by Gwendolyn Kiste

For fans of Mexican Gothic, from three-time Bram Stoker Award–winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes a novel inspired by the untold stories of forgotten women in classic literature--from Lucy Westenra, a victim of Stoker’s Dracula, and Bertha Mason, from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre--as they band together to combat the toxic men bent on destroying their lives, set against the backdrop of the Summer of Love, Haight-Ashbury, 1967.

Reluctant Immortals is a historical horror novel that looks at two men of classic literature, Dracula and Mr. Rochester, and the two women who survived them, Bertha and Lucy, who are now undead immortals residing in Los Angeles in 1967 when Dracula and Rochester make a shocking return in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco.

Combining elements of historical and gothic fiction with a modern perspective, in a tale of love and betrayal and coercion, Reluctant Immortals is the lyrical and harrowing journey of two women from classic literature as they bravely claim their own destiny in a man’s world.