2025 Reading Wrapped!
Super slow year for me compared to the 2 but it’s been busy!
May contain spoilers!
Come Closer - Sara Gran ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
• took a while for things to really get moving and it’s a pretty short book to begin with. Once it started going I loved how disorienting the black outs became.
Ghost Eaters - Clay McLeod Chapman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• loved the entire premise of people becoming addicted to communicating with their dead loved ones. The drug itself was absolutely brutal and the withdrawals and side effects were devastating. Plot twist I genuinely did not see coming.
Goth - Otsuichi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• first 5 star read of the year. I could not put this book down. The way these kids literally attracted every dangerous criminal within a 50 mile radius was some Scooby Doo level stuff. I enjoyed their dynamic and the way each chapter was a different story about a different fucked ip situation they were able to get themselves into.
Below - Laurel Hightower ⭐️⭐️⭐️
• quick little read, barely over 100 page. Fun story that left me wondering where it was going for most of it. I will say the ending was a major letdown. I felt like we learned absolutely nothing about the mothman creature, if you could even call it that. For being advertised as a mothman story I expected it to be more- mothman-y.
Episode Thirteen - Craig DiLouie ⭐️⭐️⭐️
• Heard very good things about this book because of the found footage element to it, so I decided to give it a shot. While the author did execute the found footage part of the book very well, they lost me with the character of Claire and the ending of the book. The book being written in the style of a documentary gone wrong was very clever. The book really had me in the first half. I was skeptical of the initial backstory of the institute that brought them there to investigate. It was getting a bit too technical and scientific for my liking(and frankly understanding, I’m not knowledgeable in any of the multi dimension stuff) but I figured I would stick it out and it would all come together in the end. The ending of the book was so confusing for someone like me who doesn’t understand the universe(lol). It is so hard for me to even describe what happens at the end of the book. Overall it was a fun read and I did enjoy it right up until the end lost me.
Hex - Thomas Olde Heuvelt ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• my personal favorite of the year! I fucking love this book. I would recommend it to literally everyone and anyone. I don’t want to give too much away here but it is so hauntingly beautiful and absolutely devastating at the same time. I read this in 2 days and could not put it down.
A God In The Shed - J. F. Dubeau ⭐️⭐️⭐️
• this one was hard for me to get into, I nearly DNF’d. I, at the time, did not realize it was a series of books so the incredibly slow pacing of the story was stressing me out. I was trying to figure out how they were going to wrap the book up with so few pages just to realize they weren’t. Even though it is a series I just felt like the first book gave us nothing. It started off with a strong story but we learn nothing, get no answers, and really don’t progress very far in the story making the next books pretty much mandatory if you want to get anywhere.
Last Days - Brian Evenson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• crazy cult that believes amputations bring you closer to God try and recruit a former police officer who had his hand chopped off to help them solve a murder. Absolutely madness ensues. Another fun, quick read.
Thirteen Storeys - Jonathan Sims ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
• an okay read for me. I didn’t hate it but I really didn’t love it either. Some of the stories were really memorable and caught my attention but most of them were pretty forgettable. By the end of the book when all the characters come together it was hard to keep their stories straight. The ending was pretty lackluster as well.
That Night In The Woods - Kristopher Triana ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• perfect read for October! Takes place on Halloween and does a really good IT-esque timeline split between the adult characters and them as children. Triana is my favorite author, I would read his grocery list, so I may be a bit biased in my reviews of him.
A Cold Place For Dying - Kristopher Triana ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• man this book really had me. Having to try and guess who to believe between a battered woman saying she’s been brutally abused and a man claiming he’s her husband and she is just schizophrenic. I really did not know who to believe for most of the story.
The Ruin Season - Kristopher Triana ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• again I love Triana so I may be biased but I really really enjoyed this book. I’d definitely say it’s more of a thriller but it really is just totally tragic. I’m trying not to spoil too much off all these books so the only thing I will say is my poor Jake :(
Intercepts - T. J. Payne ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• how far will the government go to spy? This book will sure tell you! Extreme sensory deprivation leads to astral projection in this story. Unfortunately it has to be extreme. Joe’s work follows him home in the most terrifying way.
Bluebeard’s Castle - Anna Biller ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• a really tragic tale of the kind of love you think you deserve when you’re severely insecure and have been mistreated your entire life. We uncover some new terrible truth about her husband around every corner and still she persists in her love for him.
Hell House - Richard Matheson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• people often call it the best haunted house novel ever made but I disagree. Don’t get me wrong, the actual ghostly parts were really good. But again, all the technical scientific stuff really put me through a loop. I found myself struggling to stay focused and progress when the story was focusing on Dr. Barrett’s experiments but sticking with it really paid off. Some scenes will still randomly pop into my head and make me cringe.
Shepherd Of The Black Sheep - Kristopher Triana ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• I honestly feel bad for everyone in this story. No one really got a “happy” ending. I just wish we knew definitely who the killer was. I mean it’s heavily implied but still. I really thought it was going the fantasy/horror secret portal type stuff way at one point. It didn’t end up going that way but I wasn’t upset about the way it went. Another quick read.