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Review: The Cost of Living by David Moody

The Cost of Living is another ebook I grabbed during the SYK event. If I haven't said it already, I'll say it now. I'm all about zombies, I love any book/movie/show/game with zombies because it's just fascinating to see how different writers/directors/developers interpret them. They could be runners or shamblers, spreading disease with bites or spores or fluid, outbreak could have started with a mistake in a lab or one day the dead just got back up. The differences between each story is fun and interesting, but they're all entertaining to me. I have a ton of zombie books to read, I'm sure I'll have more after I start the books I picked during the Terrify your Tablet event that was on the 31st. So let's talk about this one.

The Cost of Living follows Stuart, his wife, Gabby and their children as they take shelter in their home while an ever encroaching horde of zombies surrounds their neighborhood. The zombies in this book aim to infect and hunt those who are not infected yet, their only mission is to grow numbers. In the first half of the book, Gabby is in denial and always doubts Stuart. It really leaves him in a disadvantage as the responsibility of preparing and sheltering the family is his , alone. In her eyes, He's gone mad and is overdoing it. Filling every space in their garage with supplies and food. I disliked her character and felt that she was more of an obstacle for Stuart than anything. I really liked his character, he did everything I would have done and made sure his family rationed and stayed safely at home while he scavenged the neighborhood for anything leftover from neighbors who evacuated or were infected...some of those neighbors never left.

Most of the story is fueled by Stuart's oldest son and his actions. I'm not really going to talk about this because I don't want to spoil it for anyone interested in reading The Cost of Living. I can say that their relationship is turbulent, since the book is written in diary entries from three of the main characters, we get a lot of information from their view points and a chance to pick a character to side with as they fight for survival or otherwise.

Most of the other zombie books I've read were fast paced and terrifying. So much gore and adrenaline. I have to say that The Cost of Living was, in a way, more heart pounding to read. It was bleak and more realistic. There was plenty of zombie close calls but I felt uneasy and a sense of hopelessness while reading. No 'let's take over this Walmart', fighting gangs of enemy survivors or spraying bullets while being chased by runners. If a zombie outbreak happened, this would be a reality for anyone. The slowly impending ending and how long it would take to find us. The conflicts are realistic and the ending just stuck with me. This book definitely sets itself apart from others in the same genre. I really loved Moody's writing style and I will probably read more from him when the time is right.

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Review: Pageboy by Elliot Page

I was so excited to read Pageboy, I think I waited a few months on Libby to listen to the audiobook edition. I've been a fan of Elliot Page since the first time I watched Hard Candy on HBO when I was in middle school. That was the first time I felt empowered, watching someone my age exact revenge on a male predator for their friend. Another favorite movie he starred in is Whip It. That movie started the obsession I had for years with female roller derby teams. More recently, I loved seeing Elliot play Viktor in The Umbrella Academy. I've been a My Chemical Romance fan since Bullets album and read Gerard's comics as a result. Victor's subtle transition mid season 2 was beautifully done. If you haven't watched either of these movies/show or read The Umbrella Academy comics, I highly recommend them!

But this review isn't about movies, I don't have a lot to say about Pageboy. But I do want to talk about the two reasons for why I didn't love it the way I wanted to. 

The first reason: the timeline was so confusing. A chapter would start with a few paragraphs about a movie set Elliot had been on and things that happened around filming and then it would shift to a memory of being in the city and doing something as a child. No dates or ages mentioned close enough to the change to understand when the events were happening. Like I said in the intro, I listened to the audiobook, but narrators will still read everything on the page (in this case it was narrated by the author like most memoirs) so I can conclude that dates and ages were just not mentioned at all.

Maybe it wouldn't have mattered if the book were written in chronological order but the timeline we got was just chaotic and made it hard for me to follow. Sometimes I would be well into a chapter before realizing exactly when said event was taking place. 

Anyway, the second reason: maybe I'm cherry picking here, I haven't read many memoirs before this one. But Pageboy just lacked depth. It's so clear from Elloit's history and the things he wrote about in the book that he has been through so much. I knew about the hypersexualization from articles I've read, one that comes to mind is the controversy surrounding Beyond Two Souls and how a nude model of Elloit's pre transitioned body was snuck in without him knowing. There are so many examples of this happening in the memoir, but he grazed over them and it just felt like it lacked emotion. I could guess that maybe he didn't want to re open old wounds and still be able to talk about them in a perspective outside his own. But it all felt disconnected for me.

I'm not sure if I would recommend this book to anyone, of course if you're a fan and just want to read it for that sake then, yes do read it. But it was just not that for me, I still love Elliot Page and it doesn't change my opinion of him, I just couldn't get past the timeline and dryness of this memoir.

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

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Review: Floor 37 by Hannah Werner

I'm just going to keep reading and reviewing books I've found during free ebook events because the ones I've read so far have all been great! Unique stories and tropes, most of them are less than 300 pages so far so they're also quick reads, so wonderful for those of us with diminishing attention spans. 

I read Floor 37 in just a few sessions, I'm a fan of mysteries and thrillers. This one has a fun sci-fi twist and it turned out to be as interesting as I hoped it would be. 

Floor 37 dives right in with Cloe, our main character, and she's patiently waiting for her husband to show up for their anniversary date night. After it's apparent that he's not coming she rushes home and reports him missing. The next morning she wakes up and her entire world is turned upside down. No one knows who her husband is and she is sent on a rollercoaster ride of her worst nightmare, ending in a psychiatric hospital and things just get more chaotic from here. 

Through the early chapters of the book we learn through Chloe's therapist that she has been suffering from horrific nightmares and violent outbursts for years and has since been prescribed an unregulated medication concocted by her therapist to counteract these symptoms, along with an experimental sleep study she took part in. Though, Chloe has no memories of these nightmares, or even her therapist or the medication she has supposedly been taking every night. She's presented with stacks of journals with accounts of everything that has been happening to her but Chloe is reluctant to believe them because the person who wrote the journals is the complete opposite of timid, kind Chloe.

Chloe plays along with the doctors and pretends to recover bits of her memories while planning her next steps in finding the husband everyone said she fabricated. After her release from the psychiatric hospital, Chloe begins to uncover clues in her own home that change this book from a mystery to a sci-fi. 

I loved the reveal and the creativity behind the plot of Floor 37. I think the only thing I could have wished for to make this an even better read would be a more time exploring the places revealed in the last few chapters. But for a short read, it was very satisfying!

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Review: The Spider Catcher by A.L. Tyler

There was a Stuff your Kindle event in September, there have been a handful of them recently. I managed to find just under five hundred books to add to my library during the first one, most of them are dark fantasy/high fantasy and thrillers. I've made it a mission to read more books on my kindle because it's become a habit to pick audiobooks over physical/digital print because I'm a multitasker. That being said, I'm going to start reviewing some of the real gems I've found, most of them are from small or independent authors. I'll still read and review other books, but these are slept on and deserve a real spotlight.

The first book I randomly picked from my library is The Spider Catcher by A.L. Tyler. I went in blind, as I usually do, and was instantly entranced. I'm not going to copy and paste a synopsis, instead I'll deliver my own:

After being exiled from her own family and island, Ember Gillespie returns with the hope that she was wrong in assuming that her mother, grandmother and sister have outcast her. She has done everything perfectly: perfect grades, perfect image and a perfectly well mannered demeanor. But on the day she returns, she finds her family cold towards her and openly wishing she would already leave.

Ember finds herself quickly drawn to another family, mysterious and devious as they may seem, she is drawn to them. Especially the obvious leader of the pack, Acton. Surrounded by darkness and rumors, ember stumbles through her summer with her new family. She learns that the island is inhibited by demons and the ones she has become close with are the most violent among them. (That's not a spoiler, it's literally in the synopsis). Ember also learns that there is a war raging between her mother, Gina, and Acton. Ember is the prize and her life is in imminent danger.

Things are not as they seem, as Ember's nights are disappearing from her memory. Clues are left for her that show she has become more of a puppet than a friend to Acton and his demonic coven. Through twists and turns, Ember must choose between her new family or her life.

The Spider Catcher was a really good read, I didn't lose interest at any moment while reading and it was unique compared to other dark fantasy I've previously read. I felt a real connection with Ember and some of the other characters, simultaneously rooting for her and hoping she would make the choices I would have in her situation. The whole book felt like a Wattpad entry in the best possible way. This was definitely one I would have loved when I was a teenager and I definitely loved it now. My only real gripe is the confusion that came with Ember's memory loss and some of the events that may or may have not happened. But it's a very small gripe, I started a Kindle Unlimited sub and picked up the rest of the books in this series.

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Review: The Homewreckers by Mary Kay Andrews

The Homewreckers is a breath of fresh air. Some genres are just like that, you find yourself reading some gritty thriller or high fantasy with so much detail you're left satisfied but also with mushy brain. You need something clean and fun to read after, this book is the remedy. It's a nice package; containing a sort of meet cute/enemies (sort of) to lovers, a little mystery and some fun twists, a loveable main character and a trope I've never read before (romcom is a genre I haven't really read a lot of before).

Likes: • A really cute and interesting trope. The setting of this book is in Georgia and the main character finds herself as the leading role in a predicted hit reality show about restoring and flipping homes. • This book doubles as a sort of romcom meets cozy mystery. Two great genres represented well here. • Not really a dull moment. The story had my attention from the first page. • A great story about grief and healing. Hattie has really been through it and within the timeline of this book we get to read about her healing and growing through the process. • The mystery storyline was really good. It could have been a book on it's own, but it felt like the best bonus to The Homewreckers.

Dislikes: • It felt like the characters in this book didn't really have depth. I wanted more emotion and thought with them but it was lacking where it could have been expanded. • Some aspects of the restoration process felt rushed and unrealistic. It was almost like there was a few magic wand moments. • I wasn't really happy with Hattie's romantic choice in the end. She didn't have to choose one or the other and I would have chosen neither, personally. But that also goes back to my first point in dislikes, maybe there was more thought in the author's mind about the characters than what I read.

Overall, I enjoyed The Homewreckers. Mainly for the fun storyline about restoring a home for a reality show and the cozy mystery side story was what made me rate this one higher than I would have without it. Sometimes I start a book blind, so I wasn't expecting it. 

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐