Book Review: The Grownup - Gillian Flynn

The Grownup - Gillian Flynn

A canny young woman is struggling to survive by perpetrating various levels of mostly harmless fraud.  On a rainy April morning, she is reading auras at Spiritual Palms when Susan Burke walks in.  A keen observer of human behavior, our unnamed narrator immediately diagnoses beautiful, rich Susan as an unhappy woman eager to give her lovely life a drama injection.  However, when the "psychic" visits the eerie Victorian home that has been the source of Susan's terror and grief, she realizes she may not have to pretend to believe in ghosts anymore.  Miles, Susan's teenage stepson, doesn't help matters with his disturbing manner and grisly imagination.  The three are soon locked in a chilling battle to discover where the evil truly lurks and what, if anything, can be done to escape it.

3/5 stars (liked it)

This is so much more than a ghost story.  Its creepy and even though it was a short story I feel like I got a whole story.  I felt like I knew the main character so well and we don't even learn her name.  I thought the Victorian house was creepy.  The ending was so unexpected, either scenario presented at the end was believable.

Book Review: The Book of Life - Deborah Harkness

The Book of Life - Deborah Harkness

After traveling through time in Shadow of Night, the second book in Deborah Harkness' enchanting series, historian and with Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies.  At Matthew's ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they reunite with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches--with one significant exception.  But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.  In the trilogy's final volume, Harkness deepens her themes of power and passion, family and caring, past deeds and their present consequences.  In ancestral homes and university laboratories, using ancient knowledge and modern science, from the hills of Auvergne to the palaces of Venice and beyond, the couple at last learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.

3/5 stars (liked it)

I waited so long to see the conclusion of this book.  I thought this book was a little long and drawn out.  Although I loved seeing some of the old characters make an appearance, especially those I thought we would not see again.  I would love to see a story of Rebecca and Phillip (the twins) as they grow up and what they are like when they grow up.  Also thought it was so sad that Emily died.  Overall I'm glad to have a conclusion to this trilogy.

Book Review: The Merciless - Danielle Vega

The Merciless - Danielle Vega

Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned

Brooklyn Stevens sits in a pool of her own blood, tied up and gagged.  No one outside of these dank basement walls knows she's here.  No one can hear her scream.

Sofia Flores knows she shouldn't have gotten involved.  When she befriended Riley, Grace, and Alexis on her first day of school, she admired them, with their perfect hair and their good-girl ways.  They said they wanted to save Brooklyn.  They wanted to help her.  Sofia didn't realized they believed Brooklyn was possessed.

Now, Riley and the girls are performing an exorcism on Brooklyn--but their idea of an exorcism is closer to torture than salvation.  All Sofia wants is to get out of this house.  But there is no way out.  Sofia can't go against the other girls...unless she wants to be next...

In this chilling debut, Danielle Vega delivers blood-curdling suspense and terror on every page.  By the shockingly twisted end, readers will be faced with the most haunting question of all:  Is there evil in all of us?

2/5 stars (it was ok)

This story pretty much takes place in one night.  Riley and her friends trying to exorcise Brooklyn.  They do this by cutting her, torturing her and turning on each other.  I though the ending was pretty predictable and I thought more could have been done with Sofia and her past.

Book Review: Soundless - Richelle Mead

Soundless - Richelle Mead

For as long as Fei can remember, there has been no sound in her village, where rocky terrain and frequent avalanches prevent residents from self-sustaining.  Fei and her people are at the mercy of a zipline that carries food up the treacherous cliffs from Beigou, a mysterious faraway kingdom.

When villagers begin to lose their sight, deliveries from the zipline shrink and many go hungry.  Feir's home, the people she loves, and her entire existence is plunges into crisis, under threat of darkness and starvation.

But soon Fei is awoken in the night by a searing noise, and sound becomes her weapon.

Richelle Mead takes readers on a triumphant journey from the peak of Fei's jagged mountain village to the valley of Beigou, where a startling truth and unlikely romance will change her life forever...

3/5 stars (liked it)

I was very much looking forward to a Richelle Mead book but this book was not as great as her other ones.  Although it was a nice change to read a stand alone book instead of a series.  This book is set in a very beautiful place, I very much imagines the beautiful mountain that Fei's village was set in.  Also her treacherous climb down to save her village.  Although the ending was very predictable.

Book Review: The Infinite Sea - Rick Yancey

The Infinite Sea - Rick Yancey

How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans?  Rid the humans of their humanity.

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible.  Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone.  As the 5th wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben and Ringer are forced to confront the Others' ultimate goal; the extermination of the human race.

Cassie and her friends haven't see the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

4/5 stars (really liked it)

Great follow-up to the first book.  I love how there is so much of Ringer in this book and we get to know her back story and what she had to go through to get to where she is.  We also learn a little bit more about the Others and why they are there and what their ultimate plan is.  I can't wait to see how this series will conclude.

Book Review: The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen - Katherine Howe

The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen - Katherine Howe

It's summertime in New York City, and aspiring filmmaker Wes Auckerman has just arrived to start his summer term at NYU.  While shooting a seance at a psychic's in the East Village, he meets a mysterious, intoxicatingly beautiful girl named Annie.

As they start spending time together, Wes finds himself falling for her, drawn to her rose petal lips and her entrancing glow.  But there's something about her that he can't put his finger on that makes him wonder about this intriguing hipster girl form the Village.  Why does she use strange slang?  Why does she always seem so reserved and distant?  And, most importantly, why does he only seem to run into her on one block near the Bowery?  Annie's hiding something, a dark secret from her past that may be the answer to all of Wes's questions...

3/4 stars (liked it)
We slowly learn Annie's story and what happened to her.  I really liked the character of Maddie and which she had been in the book a little more and we had learned more about her story.  Although I liked the character of Wes, I wasn't too attached to him.  I almost liked the minor characters more so than the major ones.  Overall a fast read and something spooky to read right before Halloween.