Book Review: How is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose

April 30, 2024April 29, 2024 JenAcideByBibliophile2 Comments

Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by the publisher, Blackstone Publishing, for an honest review.

Genre: Mystery

Plot: After their mother passes, three estranged siblings reunite to sort out her estate.

Beth, the oldest, never left home. She stayed with her mom, caring for her until the very end.

Nicole, the middle child, has been kept at arm’s length due to her ongoing battle with a serious drug addiction.

Michael, the youngest, lives out of state and hasn’t been back to their small Wisconsin town since their father ran out on them seven years before.

While going through their parent’s belongings, the siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories. However, the nostalgia is cut short when one of the VHS tapes reveals a night back in 1999 that none of them have any recollection of. On screen, their father appears covered in blood. What follows is a dead body and a pact between their parents to get rid of it, before the video abruptly ends. Beth, Nicole, and Michael must now decide whether to leave the past in the past or uncover the dark secret their mother took to her grave.

Opinion:

I was really excited to start this book when I came across it for a number of reasons, the first being that it was categorized as a horror. But woe is me, because THIS book?! THIS book right here??

NOT horror.

For shame!

I requested this story because I loved the concept of three kids finding a home video where their parents are hiding a dead body. I mean, come on. That is GOLD. Just imagine the trauma, anxiety and recalculating of one’s childhood that would ensue from there! And though this isn’t by any means a horrible story, it just wasn’t that great for me.

In high school I took a creative writing class and the main thing my teacher drilled into us is this: avoid cliche and simile sentences like the plague. It makes a talented author look uncreative and lazy, and it makes the reader have a harder time connecting to and believing the story and characters.

Jeneva Rose, loves cliches and similes.

“Death waits for no one.”

“Because when death calls, you answer.”

“Time stops when death makes a visit.”

“…there are no shortcuts in life.”

“But then again, grief is like an airport. There are no rules or social norms. You just do what you gotta do to pass the time until you reach your next destination.”

“It’s the not knowing that kills me. A mixture of hope and grief is toxic, like combining ammonia and bleach. On their own, you can stand it at least for a little while, but together, it’s deadly.”

And then there were countless moments where the author was trying to philosophize things that the reader didn’t need to focus on. And instead of me reading a line and going “wow, that’s so deep and creative” I found myself wondering what the hell she was going on about.

“I think that people dislike something for one of two reasons: we truly dislike it, or we dislike it because it gives us an opportunity to value something else more. And when you don’t have much in life, there isn’t much you’re able to detest before you run out of things to, well, detest. So, Beth chose crust. Michael chose this town. And I chose myself.”

She’s comparing how disliking something on a pizza is a metaphor for life.

Pizza.

Life.

Anyways, that’s only littering the first half so the second half gets better.

And by better, I mean it starts moving along and getting to the point.

The ending is a little underwhelming with how everything ties together. I didn’t feel a huge sense of shock when everything was revealed, though some things turned out differently than I expected. I liked the “chain reaction” style it took, but I just felt like I was being thrown through a series of events rather than feeling what was happening to the characters.

For a book that is heavy on the grief, I didn’t feel sad for any of these people. I didn’t like them or care about what happened to them, because they all felt two-dimensional. They would say horrible things to one another and mope about how hard their lives have been. They all fall into a never-ending display victim mentality which makes it feel like one big narcissistic show. Then when it came to mystery of their father’s disappearance, I was really excited to see where the author would take it. Though it is a shocking thing to think about happening in real life, it didn’t come across as a big reveal in the book. I wish I could say I gasped and scoffed as things relieved themselves, but I just found myself speeding through the pages to get to the end.

Well shit.

I really didn’t plan on ripping this book apart when I started this review, because I really don’t hate it. I just don’t find it very impressive.

It’s a story.

That’s all I really have to say.

I’m giving three stars because two feels hurtful, and I’m sure Jeneva put a lot of hard work and love into writing this. It’s just not for me.

Book Review: Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew

April 1, 2024April 1, 2024 JenAcideByBibliophileLeave a comment

Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by the publisher, Scholastic Press, for an honest review.

Genre: YA/Paranormal/Fantasy/Horror/Romance

Plot: A seductively twisted romance about loyalty, fate, the lengths we go to hide the darkest parts of ourselves . . . and the people who love those parts most of all.

Wyatt Westlock has one plan for the farmhouse she’s just inherited — to burn it to the ground. But during her final walkthrough of her childhood home, she makes a shocking discovery in the basement — Peter, the boy she once considered her best friend, strung up in chains and left for dead.

Unbeknownst to Wyatt, Peter has suffered hundreds of ritualistic deaths on her family’s property. Semi-immortal, Peter never remains dead for long, but he can’t really live, either. Not while he’s bound to the farm, locked in a cycle of grisly deaths and painful rebirths. There’s only one way for him to break free. He needs to end the Westlock line.

He needs to kill Wyatt.

With Wyatt’s parents gone, the spells protecting the property have begun to unravel, and dark, ancient forces gather in the nearby forest. The only way for Wyatt to repair the wards is to work with Peter — the one person who knows how to harness her volatile magic. But how can she trust a boy who’s sworn an oath to destroy her? When the past turns up to haunt them in the most unexpected way, they are forced to rely on one another to survive, or else tear each other apart.

Opinion:

“He tasted like a tragedy.”

What a beautiful surprise this book was!

I received this as a last minute ARC just 4 days before its release, and my oh my am I thanking the publisher and Netgalley for gifting me this little gem. Because this story is lovely. It’s dark, it’s hopeful, it’s tender, it’s brutal and it’s horribly sad – basically everything I look for in a book.

“He didn’t want to tell her that most curses looked like gifts, at the start.”

Wyatt Westlock spent the happiest and saddest days of her childhood at Willow Heath. In the Summer, odd men would arrive and strange rituals would take place while Wyatt was never allowed to know anything. But it was always the promise that she would be reunited with Peter and James that made those Summers meaningful. Until the day she was ripped from her happy trio, and never brought back to the farmhouse or to hear from her bestfriends again. Now five years later, Wyatt returns to Willow Heath after her father’s death, in which the property passes ownership to her…and all Wyatt wants to do is burn it to the ground. But when she discovers Peter is still there, and tied up in chains, she is forced to come to terms with the sinister events that took place when she was a little girl. Why was Peter still there? Where was James? And what was really going on all those years?

“His anonymity was an accident. He’d spent so long saying so little— tucking his secrets into his cheek like sugar candies— that when he finally went looking for them, they were gone. By that time, there’d been no one alive who remembered who he’d been before he came to Willow Heath.”

This is by far one of the most beautiful stories of friendship, love, forgiveness and chosen family. I was immediately struck by how nostalgic the childhood flashbacks were. How I was instantly transported to lazy Summer days of adventure, mischief, tears and adolescence. It was impossible not to fall in love with Wyatt as an emotional little girl who cried at everything and wanted to play “wedding” with the boys, a quiet Peter who was always watching, and a boisterous and sneaky James who bossed everyone around.

“James, the daring rogue, his broadsword whittled from the arm of a sapling oak. Wyatt, the captured queen, moored upon the rocky outcrop of a stone. And Peter, the shark. Circling her in the shallows.”

But though the flashbacks were touching and very much enjoyed, this isn’t a fluffy tale with a happy ending. It’s dark, gritty, unhinged and dirty. It reminds me of Wilder Girls in how hauntingly beautiful the flaws of the characters are, and how realistically human they are. There is a bundle of sorrow in this story that will make you weep, with moments of hope that will make your heart soar.

“He thought of the stars wheeling overhead and her hand in his. The hard beat of her pulse against his fingertips and the way he’d thought maybe another lifetime on the wrong side of the sky wouldn’t be so unbearable with Wyatt and James at his side.”

The main plot of this story is that Wyatt comes back to Willow Heath, happens upon Peter in a dire state, and starts to unravel the secrets of what was really going on. The men who frequented the property were practicing rituals and science experiments on Peter, a boy who they found to be immortal. They would kill him repeatedly over the years, and he would always come back. The rituals that would take place were a necessary evil for keeping the darkness and evil at bay from overtaking the property. And in order for Peter to be free of his hell and to finally go home, he must kill Wyatt.

“He could still feel the phantom of Wyatt’s pulse in the pads of his fingers. He was torn between the desire to scrape it out of him or to stitch it into his skin.”

I really felt for Wyatt in this book. This girl has her world literally flipped on its axis and everything she thought to be true turned out to be a lie. The worst part is living through those beautiful childhood moments with Peter and James, and then Peter telling her it was all basically a lie to get her to trust him so he could kill her.

“Dully , she wondered if this was what heartbreak felt like— looking into the eyes of someone she’d spent her whole life memorizing and finding nothing recognizable left over in their depths.”

Like damn.

Rip a girl’s heart out, why don’t you?

“You look at Wyatt like that,” he’d accused.

Pedyr’s heart thudded dully in his chest. “Like I’m waiting for her to die?”

“No,” James said. “Like you’re waiting for the chance to strike.”

This book is honestly a whirlwind of emotion. It brings you up into an oblivion so high you feel your heart may burst from happiness, and then it crashes you back down into the depths of despair and makes you wonder why you would ever trust Kelly Andrew with your fragile heart.

My heart still hurts from this book, and I finished it two days ago.

“He withdrew his hand, flexing out his fingers as if it hurt him to touch her. She hoped it did. She hoped it shattered him the way it shattered her.”

Probably one of the coolest aspects of this story is the world the author has created that is both fantastical and nightmarish. There are monsters and demonic creatures lurking around playing mind games and trying to lure the characters into brutal deaths and the elements begin to cave in on them, like some sort of freakish Jumanji jungle that wants to poke their eyes out with pretty vines. The world is frightening but so realistic and eerie, it’s almost like a swamp takes over and sets a misty tone across the entire time they reside at Willow Heath.

“If nothing is done,” he said, “Willow Heath will wither and die. When it does, the dark between worlds will devour us both.”

I have nothing but amazing things to say about this story and I beg everyone to read it immediately. You’ll come for the romance but you’ll stay for the ambiance. It’s the perfect chosen-family story and one that will make you want to hold onto the people you love just a little tighter.

“Don’t cry.”

Book Reviews

Book Review: How I’ll Kill You by Ren DeStefano

March 27, 2024March 26, 2024 JenAcideByBibliophileLeave a comment

Genre: Romance/Thriller/Mystery

Plot: Your next stay-up-all-night thriller, about identical triplets who have a nasty habit of killing their boyfriends, and what happens when the youngest commits their worst crime falling in love with her mark.

Make him want you.
Make him love you.
Make him dead.

Sissy has an…interesting family. Always the careful one, always the cautious one, she has handled the cleanup while her serial killer sisters have carved a path of carnage across the U.S. Now, as they arrive in the Arizona heat, Sissy must step up and embrace the family pastime of making a man fall in love and then murdering him. Her first target? A young widower named Edison—and their mutual attraction is instant. While their relationship progresses, and most couples would be thinking about picking out china patterns and moving in together, Sissy’s family is reminding her to think about picking out a burial site and moving on.

Then something happens that Sissy never She begins to feel protective of Edison, and before she can help it, she’s fallen in love. But the clock is ticking, and her sisters are growing restless. It becomes clear that the grave site she chooses will hide a body no matter what happens; but if she betrays her family, will it be hers?

Opinion:

“Still, I think about cutting him open. Finding the chambers of his heart. Observing his stomach and whatever contents are left there.

The parts of himself so deep that even he has never seen them.”

Never have I ever encountered a story so completely romantic, yet so deeply fucked.

Dear Ren DeStefano,

I’ll do your bidding. Whatever you want.

“He doesn’t see me because he isn’t supposed to. Not yet. I am just a tiny little planet in a black, black galaxy, surrounded by debris and dead stars. But I see him, and that’s all that matters.”

Sissy and her sisters have been fighting to get back to each other since the day their mother abandoned them in a stroller at a truck stop. Ripped apart and thrust into brutal, unforgiving and unpredictable foster families, all the girls had ever wanted was to be back with one another. And since they turned 18, they have been. But when Iris kills a man she’d fallen in love with, the girls found a new sort of life for themselves. One where they loved across the United States, murdering as they went. But now Moody and Iris say that it’s Sissy’s turn to fall in love. Her turn to romanticize a man into death. Because Sissy has always been the one to clean up the messes, not create the mess. And when Sissy finds her target, she knows without a doubt he’s the one. Edison. He is who she will fall in love with for the very first time, and he will be her first kill. But as Sissy dives into her new identity as Jade, who says all the right things and is a picture of perfection, she can’t help but fall hard for Edison. But she can’t tell her sisters the truth…that she’s having second thoughts about killing him. Because one thing they’ve always said is that love will kill you and the only love they need is from each other.

“I can clean a man’s blood from the tiles. I can ease the plastic bag from his lifeless face and soak it to remove the DNA and then use it the next morning to hold my flowers at the farmer’s market. I can cut off his limbs while I’m fully naked so that I won’t have to do the laundry, and bury all the pieces. But figuring out what to say to a man you’re trying to seduce is its own brand of frustrating.”

One of the first thoughts I had while reading this story was that this book is basically the women’s bible for killing your lover.

We learn to seduce, we learn to entice. We learn to launder your clothes at least three times, to not use too much bleach on the floor and to always pull out a man’s teeth, smash them with a hammer and flush the powdered remnants down the toilet.

“I’m the one who cleans the messes, Dara. Because the ones who make them always find me.”

But all the pro tips aside…let me tell you how floored I was by this book.

I am in bliss.

I am in awe.

Pure obsession.

PURE JOY.

“‘What are you thinking?’

How beautiful the need in your eyes would be if I wrapped my hands around your throat. The silent, desperate, begging.”

This is probably the most beautiful dark romance I have ever read. THIS is the type of dark romance I’ve been craving. Not pages of smut that make me feel deeply unsafe and question what is going on with the women in the world and their book choices (she says as she romanticizes murder). The dark romance in this book is borderline obsessive, all-consuming and hungry. But it’s also so innocent, gentle, pure and realistic. These characters feel REAL. They are flawed, human and regular. They are not special. They are not unique. They’re just people.

“I want to be following my target right now, watching his silhouette through the blinds as he moves around his bedroom. I want to be imagining how he smells and what it will be like to touch him, and whether to bury him in one piece.”

The book is about Sissy’s first kill – she is to find a target, make him fall in love with her and then kill him after a few months. The girls must make friends, create alibis and plan the perfect murder so that they may move on to the next state and their next target. Sissy has always been the one to clean up the job after one of her sister’s makes a kill. She scrubs the scene, launders the clothes, chops the body and disposes of it. So naturally, her sisters think it’s time she starts pulling her weight.

“If childhood in foster care taught me to be observant and moody to be assertive, it taught iris to be invisible.”

Edwin is a fantastic man who has experienced immense loss and addiction. He has moments of anger and weakness, but as men go, he’s a really wonderful guy and very normal. Edison knows Sissy as Jade, her cover name, and she comes across so sweet, pure, innocent and forgiving. They naturally fall for each other and create a bond quickly, because of how effortlessly content they are with one another.

The crazy part is how calculated everything is that Sissy/Jade says and does.

I mean shit, this girl knows how to seduce a man.

“When he cries out, I cover his mouth with my hand, not to stifle his sounds, but to catch them, so that I might carry them inside me, and keep them when he’s gone.”

Sissy/Jade is the epitome of cool, calm and collected. She sees 10 steps ahead of everyone, knows how to school her emotions and features, and always plays the correct move. She creates Jade to be a church-goer who is in town to settle a family member’s affairs after a death. She plays the guitar and sings, and gives off the typical “girl next door” appearance. And even though she has this robotic nature around murder and what her and her sisters are doing, she’s so likable. I love her character to pieces. She is warm, loving, and normal…mostly.

“At least help me decide where to scatter her ashes, you selfish bitch.”

And though this is a romance between Sissy and her target, the other huge theme is love for family and the things you will do to protect one another. Because the relationship between the girls, though deeply beautiful, it’s also toxic. And yes, that may be a no-brainer when you think about what they help each other do. But really, the dedication and ferocity these girls have to protect and love one another is enviable. They will burn the world for each other.

“Moody and Iris are a religion, a sanctuary from the storm.”

And though I like Moody, Iris and Sissy/Jade, you couldn’t help but feel slightly anxious and suspicious of them. They all possess a rage or a quiet calm that feels too calculated to be unpredictable, which made me on edge the entire time that something horrible was going to happen.

Don’t get me wrong – fucked up things happen in this book. Things that made me hurt. Loss, death, heartbreak, unfair choices and situations. The ending is gutting, but there is so much character development that happens so you aren’t left wanting.

“I dream that it crumbles into dust and dissolves inside my womb.”

And if you couldn’t tell from the millions of quotes, this book is stuffed with breathtaking sentences and thoughts from Sissy/Jade.

It’s enough to make a grown woman crumble!

“I wanted to climb inside her brain and sit beside her, because I loved her, and I didn’t want her to be trapped in that dark place by herself.”

This has become my new favorite book – hands down. No questions asked. I loved every second of it and even stopped reading it for a few weeks because I was depressed about finishing it. It’s THAT good. So good in fact, I posted a few quotes on bookstagram and my friend immediately bought the book and finished with me as a buddy read.

“Always say your dad is on the way, even if you’ve never met your dad.”

Now begs the question…wtf do I do until Ren DeStefano blesses us with another book?! Your guess is as good as mine, but let me tell you, my near future looks bleak without her dark romantic words filling up my little black soul.

“Never forget the strength it took to do this.”

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Book Review: Diavola by Jennifer Marie Thorne

March 24, 2024March 26, 2024 JenAcideByBibliophileLeave a comment

Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by the publisher, Tor Publishing Group, for an honest review.

Genre: Horror/Gothic/Paranormal/Adult/Fiction

Plot:
Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive.

It isn’t easy when she’s the only one in the family who doesn’t quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow so much he’s practically dissolved, and her older sister, Nicole, is so used to everyone—including her blandly docile husband and two kids—falling in line that Anna often ends up in trouble for simply asking a question. Mom seizes every opportunity to question her life choices, and Dad, when not reminding everyone who paid for this vacation, just wants some peace and quiet.

The gorgeous, remote villa in tiny Monteperso seems like a perfect place to endure so much family togetherness, until things start going off the rails—the strange noises at night, the unsettling warnings from the local villagers, and the dark, violent past of the villa itself.

Opinion:

“Tread lightly. Survive.”

The time has come again for another dreaded Pace family reunion. Anna can feel the weight of her family’s weariness and judgment as soon as she enters their private Italian villa. But Anna has vowed to keep the peace during this trip, to stay amicable and pleasant, no matter what happens. And it almost seems it could be easy, as Anna finds herself surrounded by beautiful architecture, rich culture and a historic Italian home to reside in. But this festive family vacation doesn’t turn out to be another test of her normalcy, as strange occurrences begin to litter their days. Pockets of cold, nightly moaning and dreams, doors closing, food rotting, and a strange tower that is blocked off from all guests. As her family’s intricate dynamics poke and prod at her sanity, visions of floating bodies and bloodied patrons of the past begin to sharpen her senses. There is evil in this house, but where does it come from?

“…there was something idiosyncratic about Villa Taccola. The whole house suggested pentimenti, original brushstrokes covered over by something else. The same object in a different style. Past mistakes hidden by fresh paint.

What mistakes had been made here?”

Our MC is Anna, an artist who works at a marketing firm who utilizes her drawings for advertisements. Anna thinks in lines, sketches, brush strokes and lighting. It is clear very early on that she has an eye for artistic expression and sees the finer details that others may quickly overlook. But when we meet Anna, there is a thick fog of mystery around her. She is clearly hesitant about being with her family again, and it immediately made me wonder if I had a Saltburn collection of rich weirdos on my hands.

Unfortunately, not.

As soon as Anna arrives at the villa, there is a sense of foreboding and mystery. But the million dollar question is: is it the house or just her passive-aggressive family?

OoOoOo the suspense!

It’s quickly clear that Anna’s family are a bunch of judgey, rude, self-centered and rigid assholes.

To put it nicely.

“…there were only so many times Anna could stand like a seawall and let the waves hit her again and again, unmoving.”

Everyone seems to have a grudge or hesitancy around Anna that she, quite impressively, lets slide off her. This is a constant theme with her family, the polarizing effect she seems to have on them, but our Anna behaves rather maturely and unbothered by their antics – which I found really admirable. Had it been me, I would be telling everyone to go f**k themselves.

“I’m not a lost lamb. I’m a black sheep.”

So as our story progresses during this family trip, there’s a sense that something isn’t quite right with Anna, according to her siblings and parents. There are stories from the past that are alluded to, indifference and indignation from her parents, and downright hostility from her siblings more times than not. But while we stumble into oblivion and let our imaginations run wild (me kindly hoping she splatters the walls with her kin) the real mystery here is Villa Taccola.

“The smell hit Anna first. Stale. Dust of ages, a pharaoh’s tomb. Then she felt the weight.

The air in here was active. It had intent.”

A beautiful old farmhouse, the villa is an Italian vacation dream. Though there is a tower that is locked and a black antique key the caretaker said NOT to use to open it (suspicious), odd sounds at night, dozens of stray cats, frightening and vivid dreams of the past, and hallucinations of dead bodies in the pool. But Anna seems to be the only person really experiencing the spooky effects of the house, or seeing apparitions and mangled bodies.

But as the vacation goes on, time begins to skip unnaturally and the tension between Anna and her family becomes taut. Until everything eventually explodes.

Now without giving anything away, I will continue in vague descriptions.

By the end of the book, I still hate Anna’s family and wish a lot worse had been done to them. Anna’s progression as a character starts out with her keeping a leash on herself, and by the end of the book our girl is letting it ALL. HANG. OUT. And I love her for every flawed, chaotic, crazed, and sassy moment of it. Because there were moments in this book where I was DYING laughing out loud. Because she does not care one iota.

“Could you back the fuck off for two seconds? I am monologuing!”

I found the story to be a little slow at first in terms of the plot, but the family dynamics were what propelled it forward until we really got into the thick of the mystery. I liked the switch back to Anna’s normal life and how her character unravels, especially with the hotdog scene that catapults everything into motion.

Truly, a work of art.

I think this book was great, a truly lovely paranormal horror that had humor, character progression, death, twists and turns, and an ending that rounded the story out well. I think Jennifer Marie Thorne will be an author I keep my eyes on in the future, especially if she continues writing in this genre.

Book Reviews · Psychotoxin Press

Book Review: Redhead Town by Deborah Sheldon

March 13, 2024March 13, 2024 JenAcideByBibliophileLeave a comment

Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by the publisher, Psychotoxin Press, for an honest review.

Genre: Dystopian/Horror/Vampire/Novella

Plot:
In Australia, vampires are a protected class. Twenty-two towns are picked to siphon vampires, aka ‘redheads’, out of capital and regional cities. When polled, most Australians agree with this strategy. But most Australians don’t live in a ‘designated area’. Don’t have to step over drowsing redheads during the day. Or live in terror of marauding redheads during the night.

Mark Murphy is a nightshift worker in the designated area of Oleg’s Creek. His house is now worth nothing, and he can’t afford to leave. He’s heard rumours of The Refusal. Desperate, will he risk a grab at freedom?

Written by award-winning author Deborah Sheldon, Redhead Town is a dark tale of government overreach, societal breakdown, and one man’s love for his wife and son.

Opinion:

“Life is Bloody Good”

In a world where vampires have begun to take over, the government and most of its people support the rights of blood users vehemently. Say a word against them or call them a Redhead, and you can lose your job, be fined or thrown into jail. This story follows a young man named Mark as he tries to navigate this new world, while trying to protect his family.

Redhead Town is a super fast read and an interesting twist on the typical vampire story. It’s set in a world where you tattle on your neighbors, aren’t allowed freedom of speech and must follow one way of thinking or else you’ll lose everything you’ve worked for. It’s a frightening place to exist and I found quite a few themes that are even starting to feel true in today’s world.

I found the world Deborah Sheldon created to be creepy and almost realistic. It wasn’t as frightening, bloody and horrific as I was expecting, and not a lot happens, but it was still an enjoyable read that I wouldn’t mind seeing turned into a full series. Especially with where things turn for our MC (wasn’t expecting that!) I want to see what this new life brings!