• All the Fiends of Hell - Adam L.G. Nevill

This is my third Nevill book after The Ritual (loved) and The Vessel (ok). This one falls in between those two. It’s a fantastic premise and I really liked the narrator/protagonist and the children he teams up with. The aliens are super scary and creepy and there are plenty of classic horror novel jump scares. But the language of the book often leaned a little too flowery for me, like there was too much poemy exposition. The bones of the story were fantastic and I wish that he could have just stuck with that without delving into so many long winded descriptions of scenery. It certainly created a mood while reading, but I often found myself skimming over whole passages of description.

• Bury Your Gays - Chuck Tingle

I liked this one maybe even more than Camp Damascus! He is a super fun writer and reminds me of Grady Hendrix only…gayer and less gory.

• The Redemption of Morgan Bright - Chris Panatier

Absolutely fantastic! This one would probably be worth a reread in the future. I really liked how it was split up stylistically and also liked Morgan/Charlotte’s POV. Makes me want to research the author and check out his other books (I think there are two others).

• Diavola- Jennifer Thorn

Very entertaining read! At times I felt uncomfortable with the family gaslighting Anna but eventually it helped with the sense of freedom you got once she was without them. Fast paced with good dialogue and descriptions, definitely a worthy “haunted house” story.

• Witchcraft for Wayward Girls - Grady Hendrix

I liked this one but it did make me roll my eyes a few times. It lacked a bit of his classic humor style as well, but it absorbed my attention and took me into the world he created.

• The Amulet of Samarkand - Jonathan Stroud

This is the first in the Bartimaeus Trilogy and I first read it in middle school. I found the book at value village and wanted to re-experience the story. It’s still a nice read, fun story, well told.

• Wool - Hugh Howey

Decided to reread this when I learned that it’s a published trilogy now. So so good still. Such a fantastic world and wonderful characters. Can’t wait to see where the story goes in the next two books.

• The Golem’s Eye - Jonathan Stroud

Really fun to continue to reread this YA trilogy. Reminds me of middle school but not in a bad way.

• Ptolemy’s Gate - Jonathan Stroud

Holy shit. I definitely didn’t remember it ending like that. How incredibly poignant and beautiful and heartbreaking and special. I am so glad that I decided to revisit this trilogy.

• Feast While You Can - Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta

This one was pretty great. My main complaint is the dog dying unnecessarily (especially since I checked online first and saw an article that said she lived…) I like that it was written by a couple and it was scary and sexy and sweet and I liked the ending (again, besides the dog’s fate)

• A Mask of Flies - Matthew Lyons

Ugh. Lots of potential with too much exposition fluff. I almost gave it up several times but felt like I was too deep into it and also there was good storytelling in there. But ultimately the plot holes and unnecessary wordiness took away any points that the good parts gave it. Also, like why wasn’t there any meat in the lesbian romance? Why even have that as a plot line if you aren’t going to flush out the relationship?

• Guillotine - Delilah S. Dawson

This was very very simple but also super satisfying. It’s basically a short story, and very straightforward but I do love a “good for her” storyline.

• Victorian Psycho - Virginia Feito

Another quick and satisfying read. It really was like American Psycho but Victorian gothic style. The author made me laugh a lot in a good way - I feel like it was written very well. I was a tiny bit let down by how brief the descriptions of killing everyone was…like there could have been more there but I really enjoyed Drusilla joining in at the end. There was too much animal violence, but all of it was brief and not described a lot or lingered on.