The Aggressive Reader

Tag: book-review

  • Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville

    Rating: 4/5

    Spoilers: Medium

    So, was I expecting that? NO, I WAS NOT! I thought I was getting a regular mystery/thriller story but got surprised by elements of horror. Elements? I mean this full on became horror on top of the detective story. I got this copy from the library because I wasn’t for sure if I would like it or not, but this is a story that I might want a physical copy of!

    Blood Like Mine follows a couple POV’s. One being a woman named Rebecca, who is on the run with her daughter who she calls “Moonflower.” The other being a detective named Marc Donner, who is on the search for a serial killer who has been active for 15 years. The connection between these POV’s was obvious to me but I didn’t expect the turn this story took.

    I’m not big on detective stories but the mix of genres made it easier for me to read. I don’t know how to explain it, but modern-day detective characters bore me to tears! Older stories like Sherlock Holmes are just tolerable…I think this is the only reason I didn’t rate it higher. I just can’t stand the same detective tropes of them ignoring their family for their work and spending years on one killer or making that their excuse for ignoring everything else in their lives. Also, them always being alcoholics…. Just tired of the same stuff OVER AND OVER AGAIN. It was not the usual ending for Donner like other stories similar to it though. Different endings are just what the detective stories need to even catch a glimpse of my interest.

    Adding the horror element was definitely the move to create a different and more exciting story. Of course, the first book I rent in a while is better than the last book I bought! LAWD help me. This book may be added to my shelf soon.

    Thank you for subscribing! Happy reading!

  • An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

    Rating: 4.5/5

    Spoilers: Light but this book has been out for YEARS so I doubt I will be able to spoil anything at all!

    I’m finally making my way back into fantasy worlds! For a while there, I couldn’t care less about YA fantasy, adult fantasy or any fantasy whatsoever! An Ember in the Ashes might have just pulled me back in, and book two has just been purchased! This book reminded me of being a teenager again, devouring fantasy series. I’m very surprised and disappointed in myself that this was not one of those series! I remember it being huge when I was a teen, and I just didn’t get to it. I’m ecstatic that the day I got to it is here!

    An Ember in the Ashes follows two-character POV’s. One is a girl from a group called the Scholars named Laia, who loses her Nan and Pop to the ruling group called the Martials. The soldiers take her brother, her only family left so she finds a group called the Resistance and begs them to help her find him and to set him free. In return for their services, they make her a slave girl to the cruelest person in the Martial army and leader of the soldier school, the Commandant. Our second character is a Martial soldier (A mask) named Elias, who is about to graduate. More than anything, he wants to be free and has been trying so hard to find a way out because the life of serving the Empire is not what he wants. Laia and Elias will eventually collide in more ways than one and guide each other toward their goals.

    An Ember in the Ashes brought me a cast of characters that I was able to feel empathetic towards which is a huge win for the author, since it is so difficult for me to care about most characters in a book, let alone a series. I can’t continue a series if I don’t care! I’m so happy with how quickly I got through this book. At night, I could hardly put it down! Like I said earlier, I deprived my teenage self of this hit, but I will no longer deprive my adult self. Onward to A Torch Against the Night!

    Thank you for following up and happy reading!

  • Hungerstone by Kat Dunn

    Rating 4.5/5

    Spoilers: light

    Lesbian vampires? SAY NO MORE! This story was not what I was expecting at all but came out of it very satisfied. I never read the original story of Carmilla (which this is a type of retelling of), but I think I might look it up after this! All I know is the original story inspired Dracula by Bram Stoker, which I actually did not enjoy (I know…very un-goth of me), so I was surprised that this was a page turner for me.

    We follow Lenore who is married to a man who doesn’t give her the time of day but expects so much out of her. In her blindness, she stays devoted to him, not knowing any better and wanting to keep their life as extravagant as possible. Coming from a harsh childhood where she lost her parents in a violent carriage accident and had to live with her never satisfied aunt, she is willing to be put through anything just to move up in society. That is until Lenore and her husband come across Carmilla, who was in a carriage accident and is invited into their home to recover. What starts out as a simple situation starts to get…creepy. Something isn’t right with Carmilla, and she seems to have latched herself to Lenore and is feeding her ways to change her life and awakens a hunger in her that she didn’t know was there.

    Lenore was definitely the picture of a woman in this age with her mannerisms and how she was taught to think growing up. Man, am I happy someone finally made her SEE! What started as creepy turns into something completely horrific but beautiful at the same time with Carmilla and I should say, a bit freeing to read. I’ve already said satisfying but MY OH MY. The spice levels could have been higher and the pace in some areas could have been quicker which is the only reason I didn’t give it a full five stars, but I am happy I chose this one from my book subscription! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

    Thank you for following! Happy reading!

  • More Than a Review Book Discussions Announcement Numero Uno!

    Hello, my fellow AWESOME readers! I wanted to let y’all know of a new monthly segment where I will be going into deep discussions about one or two books a month! Yes, I know I already post reviews, but these are MORE THAN JUST REVIEWS! READ THE TITLE! WE ARE GOING HAM ON THESE BOOKS AND COMPLETELY BREAKING THEM DOWN TO THE KNITTY GRITTY! WE ARE LOOKING AT THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY! THESE WILL NOT BE REVIEWS, THEY WILL BE HARDCORE BOOK CLUB ANALYZING AND I BETTER SEE SOME THOUGHTS ON MY THOUGHTS AND JUST YOUR THOUGHTS AS WELL! Got it????

    I will be researching questions for each book to answer and yes, SPOILER ALERTS! I highly recommend that you read the book or books with me when I announce each month because I truly mean breaking them down to THE KNITTY GRITTY. Do you just want to see what I think and want all the details before going into a book even though it will spoil the ending? Well shit, go ahead and read the More Than a Review discussion anyway! It is whatever works for you, but I hope to hear your answers to some of the questions and your thoughts for any of it as well! We will be starting in April and there will be two book choices. Starting April 1st, we will be reading Count My Lies by Sophie Stava!

    Count My Lies follows a woman named Sloane, who doesn’t seem to know how to keep the lies out of her MOUTH! With such an uninteresting life, she makes up as much as she can to find some enjoyment where she can. What Sloane needs to remember is that she’s not the only one who does lie and that her lies land her a job with some people that she may be up for a competition for the most lies in one life…oh man. I totally over simplified that because I love going into mystery/thrillers not knowing much so I wanted to give y’all the same treatment! The spoilers and details don’t come until the DISCUSSION FOR HEAVENS SAKE!

    I will have to check but I am pretty sure this is a debut novel for this author, so I am excited to get started since I love supporting new authors! Stay tuned for the second book announcement!

    Happy reading!

    Gotta love the cat hair making its appearance in almost every book picture!

  • Suffer the Children by Craig Dilouie

    Rating: 4/5

    Spoiler level: Light

    So that was something! Something as in some immaculate writing and great depictions of grief that I was not expecting. I listened to the audiobook (obviously by the photo) and let’s say listening to it got difficult at times because of how painful this story is, but what starts with sadness, quickly turns to horror (MY FAVORITE)!

    In Suffer the Children, we follow a few POV’s in a world where every child that hasn’t hit puberty yet passes away. At first, there is absolutely no explanation, and the parents are reaching for answers. We follow a couple named Joan and Doug the most it seems, a single mother named Ramona, and a doctor named David and his wife, Nadine. We also get a couple surprise POV’s!

    This story was not what I was expecting AT ALL! I refuse to spoil too much for you, but things are not what they seem! At first, with so many children passing, it was difficult listening to the book, but I am HAPPY I continued! What an insane turn of events and showing a depiction of how crazy the world would get in a situation like this was done very well. All our POV’s shared completely different ways of grieving and situation handling and I enjoyed every one of them. Mostly Ramona’s excessiveness…IYKYK.

    I do feel like I would have enjoyed this story more if I read the physical book, just because I am picky about the narrators for audiobooks. The man who narrated it definitely wasn’t awful but very monotone at times where it was easy to zone out which WE DO NOT WANT! I CAN NOT MISS ANYTHING!!! He was cracking me up though with the voices for the kids and I think he should be responsible for most kid depictions on audiobooks. He did very well with it! Had my heart joyful and depressed for imaginary children.

    Suffer the Children does live up to the title. There are trigger warnings for child loss, suicide, and animal abuse (nothing too crazy). Also, heavy alcohol use (Well yeah, what else do you do when your children die out of nowhere with no explanation?) if that is something you don’t want in your reading material. Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a FANTASTIC day!

    I would say happy reading but this one…was not so…happy…

  • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

    Rating: 2/5

    Spoiler level: NOTHING BECAUSE WHAT COULD I SPOIL THAT WOULD ACTUALLY BE INTERESTING?!

    Soooo, I got through it! Well, mostly. I already knew what happened the last one hundred pages so I DNF’d the HELL out of it! I first read this book when it was released in 2020 and couldn’t even get through the first one hundred pages so MASS improvement there. I still have to say…as a huge fan of The Hunger Games series, I was excited to get a villain origin story for Snow but was left so FRIKIN disappointed!

    First things first, why was the writing so dull? Was I the only one that thought that? The Hunger Games series was well written to me but this…THIS Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes just drained my interest so quickly. I continued to read just to see if it got better but again…DISAPPOINTMENT! These characters…I couldn’t have cared less about them and their stories…I have not read a book with characters this dry for a while…even Lucy Gray couldn’t hold my interest. I really expected more from this origin story. I expected to feel the pain of the characters but the only one I felt for was a boy in the games named Reaper who had nothing to do with Snow at all! Again, couldn’t care less about the others.

    We learn about Snow’s past and his hardships with losing his parents during the war, but why did the writing not really do his pain justice? I’m about to use the word again so get over it but it was all just so…dull. I expected more from this book because Suzanne Collins had blown me away before, but this story just wasn’t for me. The odds were not in my favor! I am hoping to be in love with Sunrise on the Reaping, which is coming out tomorrow, March 18th, and I am PUMPED for it! I will be MIA for all of tomorrow because I am ready for Haymitch’s story!

    Happy reading!

    This book is gorgeous though!