Audiobook Review: The Grownup by Gillian Flynn

Title: The Grownup
Author: Gillian Flynn
Publication Date: November 5, 2015
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Pages: 79
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A young woman is making a living, faking it as a cut-price psychic working at Spiritual Palms (with some illegal soft-core sex work on the side). She makes a decent wage - mostly by telling people what they want to hear. But then she meets Susan Burke. Susan moved to the city one year ago with her husband and 15-year old stepson Miles. They live in a Victorian house called Carterhook Manor, built in 1893. Susan has become convinced that some malevolent spirit is inhabiting their home, and taking possession of the stepson. She has even found trickles of blood on the wall. The young woman doesn't believe in exorcism or the supernatural, but she does see an opportunity to make a lot of money. However when she enters the house for the first time, and meets Miles, she begins to feel it too, as if the very house is watching her, waiting, biding its time.... 

I have only read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and it was a book I really enjoyed, so I was hopeful walking into The Grownup. I have heard that her other works aren't as good as Gone Girl, but I still thought I would enjoy this short story. I was wrong. I didn't enjoy a single thing about this book and I really only finished it because it was so short.

This is completely a matter of personal opinion, but I found the story to be unnecessarily crude. Our main character works in a psychic shop that also offers hand job services in the back room. And it felt like the entire first half of the book was just talking about servicing men. This is a subject I tend to avoid in general, but when I am reading a book that is this short, I really don't want to spend half of it talking about sexual acts. I want to get into the story.

Once the story actually started picking up, it was definitely interesting...until the end. You know how in The Return of the King movie it fades to black about five times before the movie is actually over? So you keep thinking it's done, until BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! That's exactly what happened in this story. There was a twist at the end that was simple, nothing outlandish, but a solid end to the story. BUT WAIT! Another twist. Ok, fine, I liked the other one better, but sure, that works. BUT WAIT! There's a twist on the twist! Or is there? Or isn't there? Or....wait, I'm so confused. (In case it wasn't already obvious, the ending completely ruined this book for me.)

Honestly, I wouldn't waste my time picking this up. Yes, you could get through it quickly, but you could also spend that time reading a super awesome book that might become a new favorite. Apologies for the short review, but there is not much to elaborate on with such a short book. It was crude, underwhelming, confusing, and ultimately a big flop.

Book Tour Review & Giveaway: After the Woods by Kim Savage

Title: After the Woods
Author: Kim Savage
Publication Date: February 23, 2016
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pages: 320
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//I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review//

Would you risk your life to save your best friend?

Julia did. When a paroled predator attacked Liv in the woods, Julia fought back and got caught. Liv ran, leaving Julia in the woods for a terrifying 48 hours that she remembers only in flashbacks. One year later, Liv seems bent on self-destruction, starving herself, doing drugs, and hooking up with a violent new boyfriend. A dead girl turns up in those same woods, and Julia’s memories resurface alongside clues unearthed by an ambitious reporter that link the girl to Julia’s abductor. As the devastating truth becomes clear, Julia realizes that after the woods was just the beginning.

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After the Woods first caught my attention with it's absolutely stunning cover. Although contemporary fiction is not my usual forte, I love a good survival story and I thought that After the Woods might be my kind of book after all. Coming out on the other side, I can confidently say that this is not a survival story (and maybe that's my fault for misinterpreting the synopsis).
This book is really about Julia learning to cope with her life after the woods. She doesn't quite feel like she fits in as she used to and even finds her best friend to be oddly aloof when she should be supportive and even thankful. Julia is my absolute favorite part of After the Woods. It isn't often that I adore a YA heroine, but Julia was amazing! She is tough but realistic, sarcastic but sympathetic. So often characters in YA are unbelievably badass and way too intelligent for their age. I can also really identify Julia's need to make sense of things. I cannot imagine how I would handle going through what Julia had, but Julia was believable as a teenager who had been traumatized, even if she did make occasional dumb decisions. I even enjoyed the romance, although I know that a lot of people found it unnecessary. 
Liv was the character I really didn't understand in After the Woods. It was obvious from early on that something was just off with her, though it wasn't clear what it was. There were some big issues explored with Liv's character and it was done in a way that made sense, which I appreciated. What I didn't quite buy was her reasoning some of the things that were explored. Not all of it made a lot of sense and I was honestly left confused by some of her actions, which brings me to the plot of After the Woods. 
A lot of mystery surrounds a lot of different things in this book. Unfortunately, I was able to piece together a fairly accurate theory pretty early on. The strangest thing to me was that none of the events and none of the mysteries felt especially... urgent? I'm not quite sure how to explain the experience I had while reading After the Woods, but the best way I can think to put it is that I felt nonchalant about the whole thing. I like my mystery with a sense of imminent doom hanging over it. In this book, we know from the very beginning that the kidnapper is gone, so Julia is just kind of meandering through facts and theories. Even the big reveal at the end seemed very anticlimactic. 
I did enjoy After the Woods. The atmosphere was just the right shade of unsettling and creepy and, like I said, I loved Julia! Getting to know her better and experiencing her recovery alongside her was the best part of this book, for sure. This book also kept me turning pages to see if my suspicions were true. I just wish the mystery had been a little more mysterious and exciting. I would recommend this book to fans of slow-burn mystery and great main characters! 

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Author Bio

Kim Savage is the author of AFTER THE WOODS, a debut psychological thriller for young adults coming on Feb 23, 2016 with Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Macmillan. Her second thriller for young adults comes from FSG in 2017. Before writing fiction, she worked as business journalist, pitching stories along the lines of “Stigmatized Properties: When Murder Kills Property Values”. You get the idea.

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ARC Review: The Rig by Joe Ducie

Title: The Rig (The Rig #1)
Author: Joe Ducie
Publication Date: October 6, 2015
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers 
Pages: 320
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//I received this book through Goodreads First Reads  in exchange for an honest review//

Fifteen-year-old Will Drake has made a career of breaking out from high-security prisons. His talents have landed him at The Rig, a specialist juvenile holding facility in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. No one can escape from The Rig. No one except for Drake...

After making some escape plans and meeting the first real friends of his life, Drake quickly realises that all is not as it seems on The Rig. The Warden is obsessed with the mysterious Crystal-X - a blue, glowing substance that appears to give superpowers to the teens exposed to it. Drake, Tristan and Irene are banking on a bid for freedom - but can they survive long enough to make it?

Drake is an action hero to rival Jason Bourne and the CHERUB team in this debut author's fantastically imagined sci‐fi nightmare. 

The Rig caught my attention right away based on its title and the cover. I'm married to a Merchant Marine, so I have a little familiarity with oil rigs. Then I read the description and was totally sold! I love stories about survival and escape. The idea of being stuck on an oil rig in the Arctic Ocean totally freaks me out. Not to mention the bit about things not being as they seem. All that to say I was really excited to read this book!

Right away, this book pulled me in with its descriptions of the rig and its inner workings as a prison. Joe Ducie has done a fantastic job of creating an amazing setting out of a structure that could certainly have come across as boring. I also did a lot of fact-checking with my husband and overall the setting seems to hold up. I definitely felt like I could see each level and platform of the rig! It seems like an urban explorer's dream!

The characters were mostly enjoyable. This story is about Will Drake, a guy who just happened to find himself in a bad situation that landed him in jail. But Will is great at escaping, it seems. I wish a little more had been revealed at exactly -why- Will was so skilled at escapes. His backstory didn't make him seem like anything special, so I had kind of a hard time accepting him as a character worthy of comparison to Jason Bourne. The bad guys of The Rig were probably a little more believable than Will, in my opinion, although I did have a lot of questions about their motives once the book had ended.

My major problem with The Rig was the magic element. I somehow overlooked this part of the synopsis, so it caught me off guard. That isn't the issue, though. The magical substance, Crystal-X, is mysterious from the beginning of the book until it ends. Not much is ever explained about it. The book never goes into the why's and how's of this magical mineral and it's not clear why it affects different people in different ways. I'm okay with some questions being left over at the end of a book, but I feel like nothing at all was answered in this one. More than that, though, is that I don't even feel like the magic was necessary. The Rig was shaping up to be an awesome survival/escape story before Crystal-X was introduced.

Overall, I The Rig was just okay. I loved the world and the set up of the plot. I just wish it had strayed into weird, magic territory.

Audiobook Review: Alive by Scott Sigler

Title: Alive
Author: Scott Sigler
Narrator: Emma Galvin
Publication Date: July 14, 2015
Publisher: Del Rey
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From New York Times bestselling author Scott Sigler comes something utterly new: a gripping sci-fi adventure trilogy in the vein of The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Maze Runner. A group of young adults awake in a mysterious enclosed space with no knowledge of who they are or how they got there…and an indomitable young woman must lead them not only to answers but to survival.

A young woman awakes trapped in an enclosed space. She has no idea who she is or how she got there. With only her instincts to guide her, she escapes her own confinement—and finds she’s not alone. She frees the others in the room and leads them into a corridor filled with the remains of a war long past. The farther these survivors travel, the worse are the horrors they confront. And as they slowly come to understand what this prison is, they realize that the worst and strangest possibilities they could have imagined don’t even come close to the truth.

This review will have to stay really vague because, trust me, you do NOT want to know what to expect in Alive! As I tend to do, I went into this one not knowing very much about it other than the Goodreads synopsis. This is the kind of book that keeps you totally in the dark (pretty literally in this case) until almost the very end! It's not for the faint of heart though - this is definitely one of the darker dystopians I've read.

Alive begins with our heroine, Em, waking up inside a coffin. Yes. Insid of a coffin. As in buried alive. As in nope, no, thank you! Right away this book is immensely creepy. This book also immediately made me think "Maze Runner." The beginning of Alive is almost identical to the book the synopsis actually compares itself to. M wakes up in a box and doesn't know where she is, has no memories, and doesn't know her name. Sound familiar? At this point I was creeped out, yes, but I was also really skeptical. Luckily, the similarities are far fewer after this first scene.

But back to Em. She's the group's leader, although she can't figure out why and everyone who hears this thinks it's a joke. She's brave when she has to be, a fighter when she needs to pull out the moves, and she doubts herself constantly. This kind of character can really go either way, but I feel like these characteristics worked in Alive. I liked Em and felt like she was a really strong character, but with flaws that made her human. I could understand her doubts and her fears freaked me out too.

I also really enjoyed many of the other characters. Each had a distinct personality although none of them had a clue about anything either. I did feel like there were too many names thrown around without people to attach them too, but perhaps more of those personalities will come to the forefront in the next book. There was no real romance in Alive - more like a few butterflies here and there - and, given the circumstances, I can really appreciate that.

I can't say much about the world of Alive without giving things away, but I will say that it was amazing! Some authors have the ability to make their readers -see- their settings, and Scott Sigler has that. I felt like I was right there with M and her companions and it made this book that much more unique! From the very first page, the action is non-stop and I was constantly on my toes, not knowing what to expect next.

My only real (minor) complaint is that I feel like it could have probably been a lot shorter... There was a lot of walking through hallways, which I DO understand based on things that are learned throughout the book. I just remember finishing it and thinking that they could have left out some of the group marches.

While Alive started out on shaky footing because of it's uncanny similarity to The Maze Runner, it quickly took off in its own direction and really blew me away! I was never quite sure what to expect and I love that in a book. One of my favorite things is being kept in the dark until the big twist so this book really won me over so I'll definitely be reading book two! If you're a fan of dystopia and are tired of the same old thing, this should be the next book on your list!

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°o°  Notes on the Audiobook  °o°

While Emma Glavin did grow on me by the end of this book, she did have some qualities that were really irritating. Every single sentence ended on a high note. It was as if she was freaking out from the first sentence all the way till the last. I understand the sense of urgency this book has so I guess maybe that's why she read it such an... excited(?) tone. I just didn't love it.

Book Review: The Crossing by Mandy Hager

Title: The Crossing
Author: Mandy Hager
Publication Date: January 8, 2013
Publisher: Pyr
Pages: 280
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The Crossing is the first book in a stunning new trilogy that follows the fate of Maryam and her unlikely companions - Joseph, Ruth and Lazarus. This is fast, suspenseful drama underpinned by a powerful and moving story about love and loss.

The people of Onewere, a small island in the Pacific, know that they are special - chosen to survive the deadly event that consumed the Earth.

Now, from the rotting cruise ship Star of the Sea, the elite control the population - manipulating old texts to set themselves up as living 'gods'. But what the people of Onewere don't know is this: the leaders will stop at nothing to meet their own blood-thirsty needs.

When Maryam crosses from child to woman, she must leave everything she has ever known and make a crossing of another kind. But life inside the ship is not as she had dreamed, and she is faced with the unthinkable: obey the leaders and very likely die, or turn her back on every belief she once held dear.

I was browsing my library recently when I cam across a book spine on the "new" shelf with some really eye-catching font! If you don't already know this about me, I'm a sucker for a good cover. In fact, I will basically never pick up an ugly book, which may go against THE most important lesson of my childhood. What can I say? I'm a rebel. Regardless, I picked up this book (originally published in New Zealand), which led me on the hunt to find the first book in the series. Lucky me, it was available!

The Crossing is the story of Maryam, a teenage girl who has grown up on a remote island with the knowledge that she's one day go to live with the Chosen in the Holy City. Apart from knowing this is a special honor, Maryam knows next to nothing about what all this entails. But upon "becoming a woman" she is finally able to leave to join those who have gone before her!

Maryam is an interesting character and I was never entirely sure how to feel about her. As most are, Maryam was a strong heroine. At the same time, I was frustrated with her overwhelming need to help everyone else instead of taking care of herself. Perhaps this is a desirable trait to most, but in a situation such as that described here, it seems to me that getting oneself away from danger might be the top priority. Despite this, Maryam nearly gets herself killed because of her inability to help herself. Still, I found myself sympathizing with her and did enjoy her overall as a character.

I also really liked Joseph and could really understand his guilt over not understanding everything that had been going on around him. I thought he was a good character, but I didn't really completely buy the romance. This is a classic case of instalove, which happens far too often in YA literature. All of the bad guys (Lazarus, his father, and the other Chosen) were exactly what they were supposed to be - despicable. Ruth, though, I couldn't stand. Her along with most of the other women in this book. While I can appreciate that they were raised to have a certain meek attitude and do exactly as the Chosen commanded (cult life), it infuriated me to no end that they were totally unable to do anything to better their situation. Then again, this really worked to further the feeling of a brainwashed society, which brings me to the story itself.

There were things I really enjoyed about the plot of The Crossing. I love a good post-apocalyptic story! I love all the different ways that authors have come up with for how the world will end (I might have a problem...) and what comes next. This one was just awesome! I loved the idea that a cruise ship was the Holy City and that the crew of the ship brainwashed the entire island into believing their nonsense. However, I wish that a little more background had been given to establish how exactly this happened. I also would have liked more information on the disease that has been plaguing the population. Those answers will probably come in subsequent books, though.

Despite the problems with the background given for the story, I felt like the world building of their little island was really great! I can't pinpoint any particular thing that Mandy Hager did to make it excellent, but I feel like I can imagine the islands and the cruise ship pretty much perfectly. The smaller island where the girls were raised was different from the main island, which had multiple villages. The author did a great job making all of it authentic and memorable.

My main problem with The Crossing was the writing. It felt very strange and that could be to establish how weird this cultish island setting is. It just really didn't work for me. I felt very disconnected from the characters because of the odd dialogue and the way the entire book was written.

Overall, I felt like this was a great story with fantastic world building and characters that I mostly enjoyed. I really am dying to know what happens next - to know if the world really DID end or not! But the really weird writing has put me off from continuing the story right away. I actually did read a bit of the next book, but put it aside for now. It's almost like I can only take it in small doses... I definitely would recommend this book and definitely plan to continue it! Just be prepared for the odd writing style.

Book Review: Welcome to the Dark House by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Title: Welcome to the Dark House
Author: Laurie Faria Stolarz
Publication Date: July 22, 2014
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Pages: 357
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What’s your worst nightmare?

For Ivy Jensen, it’s the eyes of a killer that haunt her nights. For Parker Bradley, it’s bloodthirsty sea serpents that slither in his dreams.

And for seven essay contestants, it’s their worst nightmares that win them an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at director Justin Blake’s latest, confidential project. Ivy doesn’t even like scary movies, but she’s ready to face her real-world fears. Parker’s sympathetic words and perfect smile help keep her spirits up. . . at least for now.

Not everyone is so charming, though. Horror-film fanatic Garth Vader wants to stir up trouble. It’s bad enough he has to stay in the middle of nowhere with this group—the girl who locks herself in her room; the know-it-all roommate; “Mister Sensitive”; and the one who’s too cheery for her own good. Someone has to make things interesting.

Except, things are already a little weird. The hostess is a serial-killer look-alike, the dream-stealing Nightmare Elf is lurking about, and the seventh member of the group is missing.

By the time Ivy and Parker realize what’s really at stake, it’s too late to wake up and run. 

As the person hosting the Horror Reading Challenge this year, it should come as no surprise that I am a horror junkie. I love horror movies and horror books. Unfortunately, I have been let down by quite a few horrors this year. I had seen Welcome to the Dark House around a lot in the last several months, but I wasn't totally sold on the synopsis and the carnival on the cover made me wary. Carnival horror stories are so hit or miss... But when I saw this at the library the other day, I snatched it up and took it home... and devoured it in a day.

The story is told from several points of view. There are eight "winners" of the essay contest and seven of them have a voice in alternating chapters. This way of storytelling can be really distracting in my experience, but I feel like this one worked really well.

Ivy is the "main" character, despite the six others who have their own chapters. She is not a true horror fan, instead deciding to go on the trip she's won as a way to deal with her own fears. I enjoyed Ivy, for the most part. She's dealt with things that I don't see a lot of in YA fiction, at least not described to this extent, which makes her a very sympathetic character. She's terrified while the other winners are ecstatic, and it's good to see a more universal reaction to the events that unfold in the book.

Parker is the love interest, although the romance is very back burner here. I'm just so glad there was no love triangle! Like Ivy, he also has to deal with fears (everyone does, that's the point of the book!) and they confide in each other as they navigate the Dark House and everything it encompasses.

Each of the other characters has their own backstory and problems. The fact that each one has to face their darkest fears over the course of the book makes them super interesting! I really liked every character in the book, even though some were written in a way that could potentially make them totally unlikable. There is another brief romantic side story, but romance is in no way the key focus of this book.

The Dark House and everything surrounding it is totally 100% creepy. Discovering the house for the first time with each of the characters seriously gave me chills. Their exploration of different places inside and outside and discoveries of new and frightening details was amazingly written! There were elements that were staged by those who sponsored the contest and those that they were never totally sure about...

Then there was the amusement park itself! Ohmygod! I am so excited that there's a part two of this book coming out because I can't wait for more of this park! PLEASE LET THE PARK BE IN BOOK TWO! Each character had their own ride in which they were to face their darkest fear and each one was just completely insane.

Well, I read this book in two sittings, so I have to say the plot was amazing. Fast-paced and amazing! Every single chapter ended in a way that made me keep reading, which could be good or bad depending on what other plans you have.

Laurie Faria Stolarz has come up with a story that is totally unique and terrifying! It's rare that a book seriously scares me and through the process of the contest, going to the Dark House, and finally ending up in the amusement park, I was genuinely freaked out! I'm even more surprised that it came from a Young Adult novel!

Please, please, read this book if you're a fan of horror! While this is a YA book, it's not riddled with annoying teenage drama that usually drives me crazy in YA contemporary fiction. It focuses on the characters' fears and their creepy surroundings and it totally works! I feel comfortable in saying that this is the best horror I've read this year!

Book Review: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes

Title: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly
Author: Stephanie Oakes
Publication Date: June 9, 2015
Publisher: Dial Books
Pages: 400
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A hard-hitting and hopeful story about the dangers of blind faith—and the power of having faith in yourself

The Kevinian cult has taken everything from seventeen-year-old Minnow: twelve years of her life, her family, her ability to trust. And when she rebelled, they took away her hands, too.

Now their Prophet has been murdered and their camp set aflame, and it's clear that Minnow knows something—but she's not talking. As she languishes in juvenile detention, she struggles to un-learn everything she has been taught to believe, adjusting to a life behind bars and recounting the events that led up to her incarceration. But when an FBI detective approaches her about making a deal, Minnow sees she can have the freedom she always dreamed of—if she’s willing to part with the terrible secrets of her past.

Gorgeously written, breathlessly page-turning and sprinkled with moments of unexpected humor, this harrowing debut is perfect for readers of Emily Murdoch's If You Find Me  and Nova Ren Suma's The Walls Around Us , as well as for fans of Orange is the New Black.

In the famous words of Bartok the Magnificent, "Wow! I tell you what, wow!" The synopsis of this book made it pretty clear what the book would be about, but there was still no way I could have known what I was in for. I usually hate contemporary fiction, but I think there's a pretty reasonable explanation for why I enjoyed this one. Here's a little-known fact: I have a degree in religious studies. I'm fascinated by different religions and even more so by cults and this is one of the best cult fiction pieces I've read. Suffice it to say The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly totally and completely blew me away!

Obviously, Minnow Bly is the center of this incredible story. Minnow has been a part of the Kevinians, a cult that lives in the middle of the woods, for the last twelve years of her life, from the age of five until seventeen, when she finally manages to escape. Amazingly, she is the only person who wanted to escape the cult, the rest of the characters following their leader blindly. This makes Minnow an incredibly strong character, in my opinion. Well, this and many other things. Minnow is written in such a way that I felt like I could really identify with her. I felt almost like I was inside her head with her, which isn't something I've been able to say about many fictional characters. Her head was a really confusing and oftentimes frightening place.

Having been raised in a cult, Minnow knows very little about the real world and, most worrisome to her, she knows next to nothing about science. She has been taught that the sky is a canvas, the stars are God's eyes, and meteors are missiles. Throughout this book, Minnow strives to learn more about the natural world and make sense of all the nonsense she's been fed for her entire life. But she isn't happy taking anyone at their word. Instead Minnow makes it her mission to learn to read in order to learn - to find answers. I loved this about her!

Possibly my favorite character in this book is Angel, Minnow's murderer cell mate in juvie, who just happens to be a huge science buff and takes it upon herself to help Minnow learn. While she does share her opinions on the world quite often, I liked that even more often she offered resources to help Minnow find answers for herself. This is how everyone should find answers, I think, rather than accepting anything on the word of anyone else.

The love interest (there's no triangle, thank goodness) in The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly is Jude, a boy who has also been raised in the woods, but not as part of a cult. The book stretches many years and tells their story in bits and pieces, allowing the reader to watch their relationship grow from childhood friendship to something more as time passes. My feelings towards Jude changed over the course of the book, but I felt like he was an overall positive character and a very believable love interest, which is not often the case in YA fiction.

I could say so much more about the many other characters that made up this book, but I could honestly go on for pages! The Prophet is completely despicable, Minnow's family made me want to pull my hair out, and Dr. Wilson is incredibly complex. In case you haven't picked up on it, the characters in this book are amazingly well-written.

There are really two settings in this book - The Community and the jail that Minnow is sentenced to. The jail could really be any other jail. It was well-written but how much can you really say about jail that hasn't been said somewhere else? But The Community was just... it was like I was there. I'm really not sure how Stephanie Oakes did it, but she made me feel like I was watching through a TV screen. I can picture the entire Community almost in detail. I can see the buildings and the surrounding woods and the pond and the animals. There was a contradictory air of serene trepidation surrounding the Community that I could almost feel when I was reading about it. Minnow's unease and need to get away was so real based on the way all of her surroundings were described!

My point is the world building was also completely amazing.

Have you guessed yet what I'm going to say about this story? Um... yes, it was amazing. I'm sorry I don't have better words to describe it. I'm going to be honest here: I have an anxiety problem. The entire time I was reading this (and even in between the times I was actually reading) I had a constant feeling of unease. That's how good Stephanie Oakes is at setting the tone. This book made me feel for Minnow Bly even when I wasn't reading it!

This book paints such an amazing picture of a cult that is so terrible it should be unbelievable, but really isn't. From the beginning I was thinking that nothing like this could ever happen. Then I thought about Jonestown and even the story of Irene Spencer and I knew that it absolutely could, which makes it even more horrendous.

One of my favorite parts of this book (one of my favorite parts...) was that I really didn't know what happened! It was kind of a whodunit throughout and it wasn't until the very end that the truth about who killed the Prophet came to light.

The only thing I didn't absolutely love was the ending. I wish there had been more of a resolution to the story. Instead, it just kind of ended a little vaguely. It would be really awesome if Stephanie Oakes would release a novella so that I could find out what actually happened to Minnow!

I've already said way too much about this book. I could probably go on for a lot longer about everything I loved, but I won't. I really think everyone should read this book! I don't usually include quotes in my reviews, but this was so beautifully written (the author has a degree in poetry) that I can't end this review without leaving you with at least a couple.

Jude taught me what love was: to be willing to hold on to another person's pain. That's it. 

I nod. "You know one thing the Prophet never answered? That nobody ever wondered about but me? People. What made us. Where we came from."

"But you know that already," Angel says. "From the stars."  

Book Review: A Cold Legacy by Megan Shepherd

Title: A Cold Legacy (The Madman's Daughter #3)
Author: Megan Shepherd
Publication Date: January 27, 2015
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Pages: 390
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Reviews for books 1 & 2

After killing the men who tried to steal her father’s research, Juliet—along with Montgomery, Lucy, Balthazar, and a deathly ill Edward—has escaped to a remote estate on the Scottish moors. Owned by the enigmatic Elizabeth von Stein, the mansion is full of mysteries and unexplained oddities: dead bodies in the basement, secret passages, and fortune-tellers who seem to know Juliet’s secrets. Though it appears to be a safe haven, Juliet fears new dangers may be present within the manor’s own walls.

Then Juliet uncovers the truth about the manor’s long history of scientific experimentation—and her own intended role in it—forcing her to determine where the line falls between right and wrong, life and death, magic and science, and promises and secrets. And she must decide if she’ll follow her father’s dark footsteps or her mother’s tragic ones, or whether she’ll make her own.

With inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this breathless conclusion to the Madman’s Daughter trilogy is about the things we’ll sacrifice to save those we love—even our own humanity.

After I finished Her Dark Curiosity earlier this year and found myself with a severe book hangover, I subconsciously made the decision to put off reading the last installment of The Madman's Daughter trilogy for awhile. You know when you are in love with a series and you really don't want it to end so you drag it out for as long as possible? Yeah... But then I kept finding myself completely unable to read anything else! And so I ended up driving to an overpriced bookstore to buy A Cold Legacy minutes before the shop closed. It was the right decision. This was a pretty great end to a pretty great series!

A Cold Legacy picks up right where the last book left off - with Juliet, Lucy, Montgomery, Edward, and Balthazar on the run to Scotland where they will (hopefully) be safe. It's hard to say much about characters that are already so well established in a series other than how much I continued to love them!

I loved Juliet's twisted and dark inclinations and how she tries to use them in only the best possible way. She is constantly trying to come to terms with who she is and how she fits into her family. My favorite part of this book is that the love triangle has been completely obliterated! While Juliet still considers Edward to be a dear friend, her devotion to Montgomery is solid in this final book, although there are still struggles there as well as both continue to keep huge secrets from each other.

The romance between Edward and Lucy is more fully realized in A Cold Legacy, something the last book only touched on briefly. Edward is honestly the most interesting part of this whole series. He continues to struggle with the beast inside him, trying to do the right thing and keep his loved ones safe. There were some very real feels in this book, mostly owing to the characters and the things they're going through.

The minor characters were wonderful also. I loved Balthazar's loyalty to his friends and admired the lengths he'd go to to save those he cared about. The newly introduced staff of Elizabeth's estate were all interesting and most had depth that added to the story, rather than being just a name on the page to fulfill a purpose. Megan Shepherd definitely has a talent for creating sympathetic and REALY characters!

The setting of each book in The Madman's Daughter series is different. The first was set on an island, the second in London, and now the characters have found themselves in Scotland. This definitely keeps each book interesting and this one is no exception. I greatly enjoyed exploring the Frankenstein home and learning of each new secret passage! I loved the idea of the booby trapped tunnels and hallways that were not fully known and thereby always a little dangerous. But most of all I thought the (crazy scientist) lab was great! Although almost the entire story is set in the same house, all of these elements made it plenty interesting.

Finally, the story itself was decently interesting. It was a "retelling" of Frankenstein, but not really. The other two books in the series were retellings of The Island of Doctor Moreau and Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and I felt like each of those did a fantastic job of reimagining the original story while keeping some original elements. This one, however, was basically a continuation of Frankenstein rather than an actual retelling. The Frankenstein we know and love has come and gone and his creature is off somewhere doing creature things while Elizabeth has taken over the family home. It was certainly interesting, I just don't feel like it was a true retelling.

There were also some aspects that seemed maybe a little unrealistic. Nothing I can really point out without possible spoilers, but suffice it to say there were times when the characters did things that I don't know would have happened in real life.

The only thing I truly didn't like was the ending. It seemed very unresolved and I wish there was more to clear up what happens next. Even just a novella or something!

Overall I really enjoyed the conclusion to this series! Although not every book was a five star book in my opinion, I still HIGHLY recommend this series for anyone who enjoys classics or books with a darker feel.

Book Review: Sweet by Emmy Laybourne

Title: Sweet
Author: Emmy Laybourne
Publication Date: June 2, 2015
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Pages: 288
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Emmy Laybourne, author of the Monument 14 trilogy, takes readers on a dream vacation that goes first comically, then tragically, then horrifyingly wrong!

The luxurious celebrity cruise launching the trendy new diet sweetener Solu should be the vacation of a lifetime. But Laurel is starting to regret accepting her friend Viv’s invitation. She's already completely embarrassed herself in front of celebrity host Tom Forelli—the hottest guy ever!—and she's too sick to even try the sweetener. And that's before Viv and all the other passengers start acting really strange.

Tom knows that he should be grateful for this job and the chance to shed his former-child-star image. His publicists have even set up a 'romance' with a sexy reality star. But as things on the ship start to get wild, he finds himself drawn to a different girl. And when the hosting gig turns into an expose on the shocking side effects of Solu, it's Laurel that he's determined to save.

I knew I had to have this book as soon as I read the synopsis months ago when I featured it for Waiting on Wednesday! Sweet sounds like a totally original YA horror at sea and I am a total sucker for ship horror stories (note: The Last Ship - not that great). Sweet definitely delivered on originality and horror, but it really did not WOW me like I'd hoped it would.

I'm going to be completely honest here. I finished reading this about two hours ago and I had already forgotten the main character's name. I had to look back at the synopsis. (Off to a bad start.)

Anyway, Laurel is the main character on this weight loss cruise. She really doesn't want to be there at all, what with all the rich and famous people (I mean, really, who would want to hang out with famous people? Amirite?!), but she was roped into it by her rich best friend, Viv. Unfortunately for all involved, Laurel is very prone to motion sickness (and I guess they don't have meds for that onboard... rich people don't get seasick), and is totally unable to eat for the first few days of their voyage. Because of this, she is unable to eat any of the mystical new sweetener, Solu (which is also what makes people lose weight).

Laurel is also the only overweight person on the entire ship who's totally cool with being overweight because she's perfect the way she is. While I'm all for people being happy and comfortable with their bodies, one thing (one thing) that bothered me about Laurel is how she constantly tells Viv not to lose weight because she's also perfect. Like I said, loving yourself is fine and dandy, but why try to dissuade someone who admits to a binge eating problem and really seems to want to better herself? It's fine to be happy with your body, but it's also fine to want to lose weight. So it kind of bugged me that Laurel was all over Viv (before Solu even happened) about staying the way she is. I almost got the feeling that Laurel wasn't actually as secure as she tried to act and wanted Viv to remain her size 12 twin...

Funny enough, there's a second person on board who refuses to eat Solu, but he's not seasick. Nope, he's a big hunk of MANLY MANESS (she tells us this like, a thousand times) and works out HARD in every other chapter (often until he pukes, which he tells us often). Tom is a former child star and now he's a TV host and Ryan Seacrest's competition. He also hates his job and has never spoken to a normal person who wasn't famous (apparently).

Obviously, Tom and Laurel must fall in love. Instantly. In the span of about three days (seriously, the day of the voyage is shown on every page). I didn't buy it. I didn't buy the romance at all. I swear on my honor that if I ever publish a book, there will be no instalove.

This was one of the better parts of Sweet, although even the cruise ship setting was a little lacking. (Having just come off a cruise myself, I have the idea of a luxury cruise ship pretty fresh in the ol' thinking cap.) The atrium of the ship was really richly described and I thought I would be in for similar world building (ship building?) throughout the book, but no such luck. There was so much opportunity for vivid detail in Sweet! (It's a top of the line cruise ship!) But I could see the luxury at all.

Like I've already said, the plot was totally original, but maybe it was too original... The pace was breakneck, which I actually did enjoy a lot because it kept me turning pages and made this a really quick read! That being said, everything in the plot was underdeveloped. The symptoms of Solu were introduced way too quickly to be believable, for one thing. BUT I did enjoy the story. A lot. This was actually going to be a three star book for me (liked it). Then I hit maybe the last 30-40 pages and I just couldn't.

First of all, things just started getting ridiculous. Solu was terrifying enough before things started taking a zombie-vampire turn... my suspension of disbelief can only be taken so far.

And then near the end, when the whole cause behind things gets explained, I literally started ranting out loud in an empty room. I kid you not, the words "bull crap" actually came from my mouth as I started squinty-eyed at the page. Things are explained, but they make absolutely no sense at all. None. I'm a "why" person, and I asked, "but why?" probably 20 times (out loud).

And then there's Laurel (again). Remember when I said she was a maniac? She makes freaking idiot decisions.

Highlight for spoilery rant:

Picture it: You're on a boat where people are losing their freaking minds and killing each other. This product (Solu) is about to be released to the general public. In three hours. Your options are:

A) get on a lifeboat, head for land (which could be maybe 6 hours away) with a huge group of people who can corroborate your story or
B) go back with your now-crippled boyfriend into the throng of psychos and BLOW UP THE FREAKING SHIP!

Option B, obviously. Right? (nobody?) Um... DUH. Not to mention, she blew up EVERY OTHER FREAKING PERSON ON THE SHIP! Seriously? WHAT THE HELL, LAUREL?! And guess what? Solu is still being released. Because your dumb self has been unconscious in a hospital for who knows how long because you BLEW YOURSELF UP YOU IDIOT!

I just seriously can't with this girl.

I haven't read anything else by Emmy Laybourne. Her Monument 14 series has been on my TBR list for so long and now I'm seriously reconsidering ever picking it up. And one last thing. Her writing. Notice the fifty thousand parenthesis throughout this review? That's basically the whole book. I guess it's not a huge deal, but it was annoying. I'm not giving this one star because I didn't completely hate it and one star is reserved for books I completely hate. This did have a unique premise and it was totally creepy and fast paced and I liked it okay. Until the end. And then it was dumb. Really though, this is more like a one-and-a-half star book, I just don't do halvesies on my blog. So take from that what you will, I guess.

Book Review: The Program by Suzanne Young

Title: The Program
Author: Suzanne Young
Publication Date: April 30, 2013
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 405
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In Sloane’s world, true feelings are forbidden, teen suicide is an epidemic, and the only solution is The Program.

Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment. Sloane’s parents have already lost one child; Sloane knows they’ll do anything to keep her alive. She also knows that everyone who’s been through The Program returns as a blank slate. Because their depression is gone—but so are their memories.

Under constant surveillance at home and at school, Sloane puts on a brave face and keeps her feelings buried as deep as she can. The only person Sloane can be herself with is James. He’s promised to keep them both safe and out of treatment, and Sloane knows their love is strong enough to withstand anything. But despite the promises they made to each other, it’s getting harder to hide the truth. They are both growing weaker. Depression is setting in. And The Program is coming for them.

The Program immediately caught my attention with its eye-catching cover and description. I love reading about conspiracy theories in my free time because I'm a nerd with nothing better to do, so when a book comes along that sounds like it might be up that alley, I'm definitely going to take notice! I didn't really know much about this going in other than what was on the inside cover, but I had high hopes for a conspiracy laden novel in the same vein as The Twilight Zone!

Sloane is the main character in The Program. She and her boyfriend James are navigating their lives and trying to survive without getting flagged for The Program, where people inevitably come back as shells of their former selves, memories missing. Anything could send them there - even crying - as the country panics to save their young adults from the suicide epidemic. And so, Sloane doesn't allow herself to show emotion except when she's with James. As her life falls apart around her and one by one her friends are either taken into The Program or "terminate" themselves, it's obvious that it's only a matter of time until she ends up in one of the two categories.

I liked Sloane for the most part. She fought like a champ, refusing to give up and lose her memories, and never stopped fighting even to the last page. I could definitely admire her will to survive The Program and come out in tact. It felt like I was there with her as she experienced the hopelessness of knowing she was really at the mercy of those around her. I didn't fully understand the decisions she made in every instance, especially when it came to Realm, but I still liked her.

The two love interests (you knew there would be a love triangle) were James and Realm - James from before and Realm from The Program. I didn't fully love either of them, and if I had to pick one of them to "win" I'm not sure who it would be. Both cared about her deeply, although Realm did some pretty reprehensible things. James was obnoxious and arrogant, but Sloane seemed to find that endearing. Either way, I enjoyed both of them and the love triangle actually made sense in this story rather than detracting from it.

I also enjoyed the more minor characters of Lacey and even Miller. The parents in every case really got under my skin. They all seemed incredibly weak and deluded. It makes me wonder how people might really react if something like this were to occur.

Suzanne Young did a great job of bringing this not-to-distant-future world to life! There weren't many locations featured, but the Program facility especially seemed to come off the page in a totally creepy way. I could definitely feel the dread of the characters as they roamed the stark white halls and smelled that hospital scent. I felt like I was right there sneaking around with Sloane and Realm (or James) throughout the book.

The other setting I felt was really well-done was the river. It was written in such a way that I could understand the peace that came over Sloane when she was there, especially when the rest of her life is so chaotic and depressing.

Speaking of depressing, that's what this book is. Granted, it's about a world with a suicide epidemic among young people. Still, I didn't realize just how bleak a world I'd be diving into with The Program. There are brief moments of happiness here and there, but for the most part I felt like I might get flagged while reading this book!

Perhaps that feeling is part of the originality of The Program, or maybe it's just because I usually steer clear of anything that's not going to give me the warm fuzzies at the end. I'm not quite sure if there's supposed to be some deeper commentary on problems in the mental health system, but I wasn't really in a mood to contemplate that much further. Please fill me in if you know something I don't!

In any case, The Program is pretty unique, at least among the books that I've read. The story, though bleak, did draw me in and make me want to find out what was really going on! Unfortunately, I didn't find out. I felt like there needed to be more backstory - more answers about what caused the epidemic and where The Program came from. There was one (what I assume was supposed to be) big twist, but it was actually quite predictable, although I'm still at a loss of whether or not the epidemic is something deeper and more sinister. The ending was satisfying though, and didn't end on a huge cliffhanger.

  In Closing 

I really did enjoy The Program even though I'm a little hung up on the depressing nature of the book (about an epidemic of depression and suicide). I'll definitely read book two to find out what happens next, although I don't feel a huge rush to do it right this second.

Audiobook Review: Seed by Ania Ahlborn

Title: Seed
Author: Ania Ahlborn
Narrator: Eric G. Dove
Publication Date: May 28, 2011
Publisher: 47North
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With nothing but the clothes on his back—and something horrific snapping at his heels—Jack Winter fled his rural Georgia home when he was still just a boy. Watching the world he knew vanish in a trucker’s rearview mirror, he thought he was leaving an unspeakable nightmare behind forever. But years later, the bright new future he’s built suddenly turns pitch black, as something fiendishly familiar looms dead ahead.

When Jack, his wife Aimee, and their two small children survive a violent car crash, it seems like a miracle. But Jack knows what he saw on the road that night, and it wasn’t divine intervention. The profound evil from his past won’t let them die…at least not quickly. It’s back, and it’s hungry; ready to make Jack pay for running, to work its malignant magic on his angelic youngest daughter, and to whisper a chilling promise: I’ve always been here, and I’ll never leave.

Country comfort is no match for spine-tingling Southern gothic suspense in Ania Ahlborn’s tale of an ordinary man with a demon on his back. Seed plants its page-turning terror deep in your soul, and lets it grow wild.

Around this time last year I was reading The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn and being completely BLOWN AWAY by it! The obvious next step would be to locate every other book she's ever written, but for some reason I just now got around to reading (listening to) Seed. The premise sounds sufficiently spooky and i needed another read for my Horror Reading Challenge, so I went into Seed prepared to love it! Unfortunately, it wasn't everything I'd hoped for.

Seed is a possession story, plain and simple. It doesn't take very long for the story to pick up and this to be made clear. It still came as a shock though when I discovered that the one being possessed was a six-year-old little girl. (Why is it always the girls, by the way?)

Jack, the dad in the story, has a past that is not made clear for much of the book. He seems like a good father and husband, never doing anything to make the reader seriously question his character. But as he slowly starts unraveling throughout the story and his past starts to come to light, it becomes obvious that he's not the most upstanding of citizens. I actually really liked Jack as a character. Seeing things unfold through his eyes and living with his secrets really made the feelings of dread that much more tangible.

His wife, Aimee, was an okay character, and it was almost painful to see her go through the events of the book completely in the dark. And then there's Charlie...

I'm not sure whether I loved or hated her. She dripped evil, which is impressive from a six-year-old character, and really makes me wonder how her mom was so oblivious. I guess people see what they want to see.

The southern gothic setting was actually kind of perfect for this story! I don't know much about Louisiana, but this book made me want to avoid it a little... The backwoods towns alone are enough to keep me out! But seriously, Ania Ahlborn did a great job of setting a creepy deep south mood for this story.

The demonic possession in this book, while pretty creepy, was not the absolutely terrifying ordeal I had been hoping for. This book was really more of a slow burn horror novel than a collection jump-scares. While it was okay, it just wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. The tension builds very slowly from page one and it all culminates at the very (very) end. And honestly, the ending wasn't as shocking as I thought it might be. It had become pretty obvious what would happen by then time the big finish occurred.

Overall, I did enjoy Seed. It was a good, slow-burn horror novel and I would recommend it to people who are a fan of horror, or maybe those who want to start with a lighter horror novel before jumping right into Stephen King!

---

°o°  Notes on the Audiobook  °o°

Truthfully, I didn't love Eric G. Dove as a narrator. His voice was a little... bland. But I'm honestly really picky when it comes to male voice actors.

Book Review: The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

Title: The Madman's Daughter
Author: Megan Shepherd
Publication Date: January 29, 2013
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Pages: 420
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Reviews for books 2 & 3

Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.

Inspired by H. G. Wells's classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman's Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we'll do anything to know and the truths we'll go to any lengths to protect. 

The Madman's Daughter sat on my TBR shelf for over a year, waiting to get a second glance. I had read the blurb before I put it there, of course, but I apparently didn't read it close enough. Recently, while looking for something new to read, I came across this book again and gave the description another read. And I saw the last paragraph. I was totally sold! The Island of Dr. Moreau was one of the books I was forced to read in high school (we watched the 1977 movie too!) and was totally enamored with. The idea of a mad scientist making these creatures on a secluded island just really caught my interest for some reason. So when I realized this book was based on that story, I absolutely had to read it as soon as possible!

This is a book that is definitely leaning towards gothic. There is nothing heartwarming here, so if you're looking for that special feeling and a happy ending, look elsewhere. I would have expected nothing less from a book based on Dr. Moreau. The story begins with Juliet working in a university hospital as a maid, fallen from her on-high status as a result of the scandal surrounding her mad scientist father who promptly abandoned his family when the warrant went out for his arrest. Assumed dead, he was never sought out by his daughter. But when she gets a hint that he might still be alive and then has a run in with her long-lost childhood friend, she sets off to find him again. What she finds is not what she had in mind, however.

The characters in this story, particularly Juliet, Montgomery, and Edward, were all very well portrayed. Juliet was not the kind of helpless heroine who gets on my nerves and Montgomery and Edward were mysterious enough in the beginning that it allowed for a great deal of revelation and growth throughout the book. I was able to identify with Juliet as she attempted to reconcile the conflicted feelings she had for Montgomery and Edward - the boy she'd idolized as a child and the mysterious castaway. Both had their redeeming qualities and I'm definitely interested to see where this particular love triangle goes in the rest of the series. Juliet's father was just what a mad scientist should be - totally mad. My heart broke for Juliet as she realized just how deep that madness went. The secondary characters in The Madman's Daughter - Alice, Balthazar, and Jaguar - were all very well developed as well.

The plot itself, while significantly different from The Island of Dr. Moreau, was intriguing. I loved finding things out along with Juliet as the story progressed. There were also several twists that I never saw coming! The search for the monster on the island was particularly good. Without giving too much away, there were some intense, unexpected facts that came to the surface near the end that were just awesome! The way Megan Shepherd built up the worlds of both London and the Island was also really well done. The gloom and hopelessness of London was tangible, as was the uncertainty and danger of the island.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Though I went back and forth on the rating (probably because I had to take some time to come to terms with the ending), I settled on four stars. I didn't realize until after I finished that each book in the series is based on a different classic - The Island of Dr. Moreau, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Frankenstein. I'm very excited to see where this goes in the next book once Juliet is back in London!

Book Review: The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn

Title: The Shuddering
Author: Ania Ahlborn
Publication Date: June 18, 2013
Publisher: 47North
Pages: 307
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Ryan Adler and his twin sister, Jane, spent their happiest childhood days at their parents' mountain Colorado cabin - until divorce tore their family apart. Now, with the house about to be sold, the Adler twins gather with their closest friends for one last snowboarding-filled holiday. While commitment-phobic Ryan gazes longingly at Lauren, wondering if his playboy days are over, Jane's hopes of reconciling with her old boyfriend evaporate when he brings along his new fiancée. As drama builds among the friends, something lurks in the forest, watching the cabin, growing ever bolder as the snow falls - and hunger rises. After a blizzard leaves the group stranded, the true test of their love and loyalty begins as the hideous creatures outside close in, one bloody attack at a time. Now Ryan, Jane, and their friends must fight - tooth and nail, bullet and blade - for their lives. Or else surrender to unspeakable deaths in the darkened woods.

The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn is one of the rare books that really kept my interest from start to finish. I blew through it in a couple nights and actually thought about getting back to it during the day. There were multiple aspects of this book that all came together to create something that I just couldn't bring myself to put down. Romance, suspense, horror - this book has it.

Ania Ahlborn has a way of creating characters that are believable and easy to empathize with. I identified completely with April. While the other characters in the book were irritated and hating her, I was thinking to myself, "That's me!" Well, at least until she totally flipped her lid... The romance in this book was actually convincing as well (most of it, anyway), something that not all horror novels are able to get right. I felt Jane's pain and I believed Sawyer's internal struggle. That's not to say that there were no flaws in the character department, however.

Ryan was an annoying character, a little too full of himself (this is one of those places where I identified with April). While I did believe the love he showed for his sister, the relationship between Ryan and Lauren was rushed and a little implausible. While I'm sure she was a nice girl, the speed with which he decided she was something special was pretty farfetched.

"What about the horror in this horror novel?" you ask. I was on the edge of my seat. The bad guys in this book were something entirely new and not just your generic ghostie or beastie. They were in every way terrifying, even more so once it's revealed that they really aren't "bad" for the sake of it. My only regret is that they were not further explored. Where did they come from? Why are they there? Why haven't they been discovered yet? That being said, I loved the creatures in this book and I'd love to see more original content as opposed to the standard rehashing of old ideas.

The one thing that really irked me in this book was the constant cutting to other characters that no one cares about. While I realize this is meant to build the suspense and show the terrifying nature of the "big bad," I really wish the author had stuck to the main storyline a little more closely in the first half of the book.

I really had to think this book over for a couple days before reviewing to decide how I felt about the ending. All said and done, I think it was perfect. While this ending may upset some, I think it really does work with the rest of the story. I highly recommend The Shuddering to anyone who enjoys horror with a cabin-in-the-woods feel and a whole new type of monster. Perhaps reading it during daylight hours is the best option - otherwise you may end up sleeping with the lights on.