Every night, while the rest of the world is sleeping, five people working the late night shift meet in the cemetery for a smoke and a break from the mEvery night, while the rest of the world is sleeping, five people working the late night shift meet in the cemetery for a smoke and a break from the menial labor they do. One night, they find a shallow grave has been dug, and a sleep-deprived investigation begins. This novella, spanning only 24 hours, expertly creates an atmospheric, spooky story that is only enhanced by the masterfully done full-cast narration of the audiobook. While there isn’t a ton of substance here, this novella reminded me just why I love Rio so much. She achieves a general unease through unnerving facts and questionable ethics of mad scientists and leaps made from sleep deprivation and it feels almost like an adult episode of Scooby Doo. This is the perfect novella to read when you want to immerse yourself into the spooky atmosphere of fall and makes me excited for whatever Rio does next. I really hope inspiration strikes for some more spooky novellas like this one.
Thank you for the arc. Book out: 09/24/2024...more
All of the stuff from my review of this last fall got deleted last night?? Rip.
When the skincare obsessed Mirabelle's mother dies in a tragic accid All of the stuff from my review of this last fall got deleted last night?? Rip.
When the skincare obsessed Mirabelle's mother dies in a tragic accident, she heads from Montreal to California to settle her affairs. What she finds there is some magic shoes and a mysterious woman pushing her to follow the path her mother followed before her death. Mirabelle finds her way to the incredibly creepy culty spa that her mother was apart of and is welcomed with open arms. We follow Belle as she moves deeper in this cult, accepting more treatments and becoming more and more flawless as time goes on, but by the end of it she has to ask herself - is beauty worth the cost?
"I'm wearing a dread of liquid gold that burns like the sun. I'm wearing shoes of reddest blood. The mirrors are cracking all around me. The waves are saying, entree, entree."
Rouge tackles the toxicity of the beauty/skincare industry while leaving one just a little bit more confused about Tom Cruise than they were before this book.
Awad tackles the toxicity of a western beauty standard perfectly especially with Belle, who is half Egyptian (like Awad herself). Belle is a self insert for Awad and it works perfectly. You feel the jealousy she feels towards her "perfect" white mother (who also has severe self image issues that she passed down), her struggling with her identity as a mixed girl with a white mother especially in regards to western beauty standards, her neglectful mother who seems to be more obsessed with making it big in Hollywood and her own reflection, and her feelings of animosity towards her father, who she never met yet who still seemingly runs part of her life.
I found this to be significantly less weird than Bunny and All's Well. Where the other books felt like a fever dream, all the odd things in this one felt more purposeful.
"I'm trying to save you, Sunshine. I'm trying in my broken way. I'm holding out my arms. I'm taking the apple you're handing me. I'm looking into your eyes and saying it's the most perfect thing. Even though you're not hearing me."
If you have mommy issues, prepare to be thoroughly destroyed by this book.
While a lot of this book centers around the toxicity of the beauty industry, it also looks into the of a mother-daughter bond. Awad does an incredible job of portraying a tumultuous mother daughter relationship where, although both parties may not understand each other well, they would each do anything for the other. This book shows exactly how precious a mother's love is and how grief manifests when that force disappears.
While this feels like the most personal of Awad's books and the ending left me significantly more emotional than the others, the middle parts got a bit repetitive and fell flat for me. The last 100 pages were the best part....more
when i find you ren... (╥﹏╥) // rtc! idk ren told me to read this so she can yap so now i'm dropping everything to read it ♡ ～('▽^人)when i find you ren... (╥﹏╥) // rtc! idk ren told me to read this so she can yap so now i'm dropping everything to read it ♡ ～('▽^人)...more
Compound Fracture is a love letter to Appalachia and the working class told through a trans and autistic lens. It’s an incredibly brutal, horrific talCompound Fracture is a love letter to Appalachia and the working class told through a trans and autistic lens. It’s an incredibly brutal, horrific tale of a century-long feud to free the working class from the jaws of the elite who profit off of them. It’s about community and carving out a space for yourself under inhospitable conditions. It’s about fighting for yourself when you’re unwillingly to leave your home. With the use of both sides, White discusses how young people can be moved to violence when facing hopelessness and shows just what some people are willing to do to survive. It’s unsettling and heartbreaking but leaves the reader with a feeling of hope by the end.
thank you netgalley and peachtree teen for the arc In depth review to come on release (09/03/2024) ...more
"There is a difference between horrible things that have gone on forever, because you can almost convince yourself of the inevitably of an age-old cr "There is a difference between horrible things that have gone on forever, because you can almost convince yourself of the inevitably of an age-old cruelty, or almost it’s necessity. But not a new one. With a new one, the change is too great, the wound too new, and you cannot convince yourself that it is simply the way of the world."
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is an incredible YA horror novel about Silas, an autistic trans boy in 1800s England who has violet eyes - and therefore a connection to the spirits beyond the veil. Because he is perceived to be a girl and has been causing "problems" (see: he's autistic and trans in 1800s England), he is sent to a school to reform unruly girls with violet eyes so they can become better wives (red flags should definitely be popping up about this school). This already terrible and abusive school is something much more sinister under the surface and Silas is recruited by the spirits of past school girls to get to the bottom of it.
I truly think Andrew Joseph White is one of the most important authors of our time as he is doing something truly amazing with his books. We follow Silas as he grapples not only with not being able to transition in a society that hates him for being trans, but also as someone who is ridiculed for not understanding social norms .Since he is perceived as a woman, he is also not allowed to become a surgeon because of the rampant sexism of society and while at the school, we see the reality of how the only option for a "woman" who is not up to society's standards is to be abused while trying their best to conform to society or die a painful death. The side characters - specifically the young women in the school with Silas and his fiance - are incredibly well thought out and nuanced characters. All of their storylines were absolutely heartbreaking in a way that really highlights how society reacted to women who weren't just well behaved dolls. This was one of those stories where I had to put the book down multiple times during the last 100 pages to cry and collect myself because everything was hitting me so hard.
This book is a bit gory but it is all done for such a specific purpose and adds so much depth to the story. Everything about this book was incredibly done and I would easily recommend this book to everyone....more
Really enjoyed these 3 volumes, and loved where it picked up after the golden age. Great fantasy/horror manga and I cannot wait to dive deeper into thReally enjoyed these 3 volumes, and loved where it picked up after the golden age. Great fantasy/horror manga and I cannot wait to dive deeper into the lore! ...more
When the skincare obsessed Mirabelle's mother dies in a tragic accident, she heads from Montreal to California to settle her affairs. What she finds tWhen the skincare obsessed Mirabelle's mother dies in a tragic accident, she heads from Montreal to California to settle her affairs. What she finds there is some magic shoes and a mysterious woman pushing her to follow the path her mother followed before her death. Mirabelle finds her way to the incredibly creepy culty spa that her mother was apart of and is welcomed with open arms. We follow Belle as she moves deeper in this cult, accepting more treatments and becoming more and more flawless as time goes on, but by the end of it she has to ask herself - is beauty worth the cost?
"I'm wearing a dread of liquid gold that burns like the sun. I'm wearing shoes of reddest blood. The mirrors are cracking all around me. The waves are saying, entree, entree."
Rouge tackles the toxicity of the beauty/skincare industry while leaving one just a little bit more confused about Tom Cruise than they were before this book.
Awad tackles the toxicity of a western beauty standard perfectly especially with Belle, who is half Egyptian (like Awad herself). Belle is a self insert for Awad and it works perfectly. You feel the jealousy she feels towards her "perfect" white mother (who also has severe self image issues that she passed down), her struggling with her identity as a mixed girl with a white mother especially in regards to western beauty standards, her neglectful mother who seems to be more obsessed with making it big in Hollywood and her own reflection, and her feelings of animosity towards her father, who she never met yet who still seemingly runs part of her life.
I found this to be significantly less weird than Bunny and All's Well. Where the other books felt like a fever dream, all the odd things in this one felt more purposeful.
"I'm trying to save you, Sunshine. I'm trying in my broken way. I'm holding out my arms. I'm taking the apple you're handing me. I'm looking into your eyes and saying it's the most perfect thing. Even though you're not hearing me."
If you have mommy issues, prepare to be thoroughly destroyed by this book.
While a lot of this book centers around the toxicity of the beauty industry, it also looks into the of a mother-daughter bond. Awad does an incredible job of portraying a tumultuous mother daughter relationship where, although both parties may not understand each other well, they would each do anything for the other. This book shows exactly how precious a mother's love is and how grief manifests when that force disappears.
While this feels like the most personal of Awad's books and the ending left me significantly more emotional than the others, the middle parts got a bit repetitive and fell flat for me. If I could rate the last 100 pages by themselves, this would be a favorite book of all time. Maybe after it sits with me for a little it will become a favorite regardless. ...more
adding: everytime i think about this book i think about how incredibly underwhelming and not scary it was while the man writing it completely made a madding: everytime i think about this book i think about how incredibly underwhelming and not scary it was while the man writing it completely made a mockery of women with these negative caricatures he portrays them as, so I’m lowering my rating.
the premise had so much potential but the execution fell flat. The ending/fight scene was great but i really wish we got more of those vibes throughout the rest of the book. I woulve loved if we could’ve seen a story of a badass group of southern housewives battling a vampire while they are all reduced to being hysterical women/not taken seriously by the men around them.
this book was enjoyable enough to stick through but was absolutely not without its faults. For one, I didnt really view this as a horror in any way - it was predictable and felt a lot more like a literary novel with a vampire subplot. Second, while Hendrix does sexism and racism as satire and I really do love those aspects of the story (well hate because I want to strangle all the men but that is the point and its well executed) - he also writes his black characters and white women as… incredibly stereotypical and one dimensional and it took a lot out of the enjoyment for me. I really expected a story of female friendship and a bookclub banding together to fight this evil but I got a bunch of women who didnt care about or support their friends and were each reduced to a single negative stereotype. When the racism and sexism moves from how the outside world perceives black people and women to how the author is writing them to actually be, it no longer feels like it is apart of the satire but how the author feels about these groups of people - especially since I have heard similar complaints about how he writes women in his other books that are not satire about southern housewives....more
4.5/5 incredible for the sci-fi, in depth science explanations, and cryptozoology topic but i felt slightly thrown out of it the with the more romanti4.5/5 incredible for the sci-fi, in depth science explanations, and cryptozoology topic but i felt slightly thrown out of it the with the more romantic/human parts but that was just personal preference. I haven’t read sci-fi in a really long time and genuinely was enthralled the whole time. ...more
I’m gonna reread this and give it a proper review the second we get a release date for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein adaptation with Andrew GarfieI’m gonna reread this and give it a proper review the second we get a release date for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein adaptation with Andrew Garfield as Frankenstein because ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? That movie is going to ruin my life...more
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