October, 2022
October 1st, 2022, 3:06 p.m. - Shut up, Ruby
41. How to Be Eaten (Maria Adelmann)
Up next: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Stuart Turton)
October 8th, 2022, 11:57 a.m. - There's no possible way that any reader has ever figured this out, right?
42. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Stuart Turton)
Up next: All Good People Here (Ashley Flowers)
October 15th, 2022, 1:18 p.m. - That ending, man...
43. All Good People Here (Ashley Flowers)
Up next: Stay Awake (Megan Goldin)
October 21st, 2022, 7:57 p.m. - Another victim of keepsusingcharacters'fullnamesitis
44. Stay Awake (Megan Goldin)
Up next: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires (Grady Hendrix)
October 30th, 2022, 4:26 p.m. - Also suffers from keepsusingcharacters'fullnamesitis
45. The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires (Grady Hendrix)
Up next: Magic for Liars (Sarah Gailey)
Better in concept than in execution. I was excited for this when I started, but it didn't work for me.
Also better in concept than in execution. I was really into this at the beginning, but by the end, I just wanted it to be over. There was way too much going on and way too many characters. If it had been pared down, it would have been excellent – fantastic twists and a great premise. Just...not what I was hoping for.
This was a little different from most protagonist-returns-home-and-solves-a-mystery-or-two books. Flowers' writing is really strong for a debut author. My only real complaint is that the ending was both bleak and open-ended, so I feel like I didn't get closure.
Well-paced and definitely qualifies as a page-turner, but it could have used a couple more suspects, because there were only, like, two possibilities. Also, the ending felt anti-climactic. Still, a strong mystery with a lot of puzzle pieces to try to fit together.
Really uneven, and I didn't appreciate a mostly feminist, socially observant story that took a detour into sexual violence. Maybe no more Grady Hendrix books for me.