YOU [Caroline Kepnes] Genres: thriller, suspence, romance Insanely surprised I liked this book considering my sister made me watch the Netflix show and it was so stupid. Not that I didn't like Penn Badger (or whatever his name is)'s portrayel of Joe, because he did good, but I hated all the other characters. Reading the book, I hated them even more!! But the book was far more enjoyable and getting into the mind of a psychotic stalker is interesting. Even though he's a nut, I loved Joe and wanted him to be happy. It's just a shame that the tv show sucked.
	HIDDEN BODIES [Caroline Kepnes] Genres: thriller, suspence, romance The much anticipated (by me at least) sequel to "You"! This one took a slightly differnet direction. While Joe was not the only nut-job in the first book, this time he's dealing with an even crazier adversary! The new object of his affections seems normal enough, and it really does seem like he's going to get his happy ending... but we all know that sequels are awesome, so of course poor Joe is left hanging once more. I tried watching the season that went along with this book too and got through like maybe 3 episodes. The show changes SO MUCH. Not worth watching at all!
	YOU LOVE ME [Caroline Kepnes] Genres: thriller, suspence, romance Even more absolute insanity in this book! I felt like Joe was really trying to be as normal as possible, because this new object of his affections was an older woman and mom, and he wanted to be the family man that she needed. He does run into more crazies he has to deal with in order to get him woman, but they are nothing compared to the odd plot jumps this book takes at times! It's the only reason this book gets 4 stars instead of 5, because I got whiplash from the plot twists. The ending really was devastating, but we got left on a cliff-hanger, so maybe Kepnes will write more? (I hope so)!
	THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB'S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES [Grady Hendrix] Genres: horror, drama, suspense I wanted to like this book. I really did. I love most of Grady's other stuff (well, everything I've read so far), but I couldn't really get into this book, even though I finished it in no time. I wanted to see some more traditional vampires and I wanted to read about some badass vampire slaying, but I got neither one? The friend group in this book were just awful. I feel like none of them truly liked one another, and the shit they dealt with in their personal lives made me uncomfortable. I guess I also couldn't identify with any of them since they're all wealthy southern women, but still... I hope the future books I read by him are better. Here's a link to a more detailed review on my blog if you're interested.
	HIDE [Kiersten White] Genres: horror, suspense I almost want to give this book a 2, but I'll refrain since it kept my attention. This was one of those books where the premise seemed more interesting than the book turned out to be. Young adults have to play hide-n-seek in an abandoned amusement park for a week in order to win a cash prize, and if they get caught they're out (and by out I mean dead, although they don't know that). The characters were alright, nothing special. The main girl was kind of annoying, and the inclusion of politics into the story was also really weird? Like, this was a book about old vs. young (tradition vs. breaking away from that), but then they had to make it about race? When race literally had nothing to do with the issue at hand? Cheap, but whatever, it was something to read I suppose.
	THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP [Grady Hendrix] Genres: crime, thriller I really, really wanted to like this book, since the last Grady Hendrix book I read wasn't my favorite. I loved the concept of this one, so I was excited going in, but I really couldn't even get into the book until about 3/4 of the way through. The main character wasn't my favorite, I didn't hate her, but I didn't like her either, and all her buddies (who are really just members of her support group) I didn't like either. I also really hated the faux-feminism message in the book where one of the main villains turns out to be a girl, but instead of blaming it on her, they blame it on her boyfriend because "she's been brainwashed". I call that faux-feminism because it mascarades as girls supporting other girls (it's not her fault! she's one of us, not the one to blame!) but in turn calls the girl too weak to be a true villain because the man in her life was "controlling" her (aka she's too weak to be a true badass villain without a man around - aka, not very empowering for bad girls in my opinion). Ugh. All in all - what a let down.
	THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW [A.J. Finn] Genres: thriller, suspense I bought this during one of the book sales at my work. I get an employee discount, so the sale didn't really matter, but it's what made me notice the book. This, just like every other book in this "unreliable narrator is a drunk woman who watches other people do shit" genre keeps you on your toes guessing whether what the narrator is talking about is even really happening. While I should be tired of this trope, I actually kind of like it? Although, I wish these authors would stop making the women alcoholics. Either way, there were a few twists that I predicted, I enjoyed them. The movie version of this sucked, and I'm sorry, they really need to stop putting Amy Adams in these dramatic, crazy-girl screen adaptions of books.
	VERITY [Colleen Hoover] Genres: thriller, romance After a lot of my employees kept raving about Colleen Hoover being such a "good author", I decided to give this one a try. One of them told me how Verity was super crazy and was a disturbing book for her, and since most of my employees are like 19, I should've known not to trust their taste. Upon reading this, I realized that Colleen Hoover's level or writing is for sure aimed at older teens and what is disturbing to people who read her books is like tepid water for me. I like really fucked up books and this did not deliver. While the mystery was (and still is, since it's open ended) pretty good, the writing and the plot itself was just not that great? I also hated all the sex scenes. Highly unnecessary. And the climax towards the end? Disappointing.
	CIRQUE DU FREAK: A LIVING NIGHTMARE [Darren Shan] Genres: fantasy, horror I have, of course, read this book about a million times. This time I'm getting my husband to read the series with me so we can talk about it. It is the first volume of my favorite series of all time after all! I give this one 5 stars, mostly because it's what starts it all. The writing is simple, since I do believe these books were written for like 12 year old little boys, but it's fast-paced and keeps you on your toes wanting to know what happens next. It also introduces the two main characters. My husband liked it as well. I can't wait to read the second one together!