TENDER IS THE FLESH [Agustina Bazterrica] Genres: dystopian, horror, social commentary What a ride! I'd say it was "disturbing", but I've read far worse before. I have enjoyed reading a bunch of normie reviews on this book though, people who don't normally read fucked up books because they're like "THIS IS THE WORST EVER!" At first I was confused as to why the author was writing the protagonist to be so... dislikable, but when I got to the ending, I got it. He constantly whines over his dead son and seems to only think about his "need to breed". I view this as even a feminist story, since even some of the normal human women aren't viewed as equals by the main guy. You can tell by some of the things he says and does to the very few women in the story early on, and so the ending made me understand - AH! This is a story about a man who views others as animals, but is no better than an animal himself! The tell-tale sign of this is that the author never even refers to the man by his name (in the story "meat" is not referred to by name). Very clever! I give it four stars, because it's not the most original story I've ever read, but I must have liked it because I devoured it rather quickly (see what I did there?)
	THE BLACK FARM [Elias Witherow] Genres: horror, splatterpunk, supernatural Okay, so. I am on the fence about this book. It was certainly entertaining enough for me to finish within a week (which is really fast for me). The concept is fascinating and I love the idea that when people commmit suicide, instead of going to Heaven or Hell, they're sent to a horrible third place. However, this story is gruesome simply for shock-value sake. The main character is Nick and we have no idea who he is as a person before he and his girlfriend Jess kill themselves. Sure, horrid things happen to him in The Black Farm, however, I think he "breaks" too quickly (and he is such a cringey edge-lord). For him to drop his morals so fast, clearly we shoulda got more character development on this guy to learn why that woulda happened. Something has to be wrong with him, but it's never delved into. And Jess, other than being the only thing keeping Nick going, is completely useless. Which is another problem, you can tell this story was written by a man, every woman in this story is just used for EXTREME abuse and none of them are strong or heroic. There are tons of deus ex machinas that somehow allow Nick to survive and thrive in The Black Farm where others (for eons) have not. A lot of his journey just seemed too easy, despite the horrors he went through and witnessed. OH! And this book reads a lot like the author is a pissy teenager writing a novelization to an anime. While I do want to know what he does with the sequel, the book is just not that good.
	RETURN TO THE BLACK FARM [Elias Witherow] Genres: thriller, suspence, romance Aaaaall right. So as much as I didn't even like the first book, I had to read the second book since I couldn't just leave myself hanging without knowing what the proper conclusion was. I don't know why this book was written though. The ending of the first book would have been good enough, but I guess the author just wanted to continue fucking things up for this poor loser Nick...? I'm not sure. Either way, he's told he has to go back to The Black Farm to set things right. However, once he does this, he's told that things woulda righted themselves out even without him, and he was really just brought back as a punishment because he pissed off God. The way God is portrayed in the book is extremely anti-climatic too. What a let-down. The author also must have been in a phase where he was into "The Last of Us" or something, because he literally wrote Nick taking care of a little girl he finds as a good chunk of the story, and it's so stupid. Again - girls are only there to be "protected" by men from other men who want to rape and dismember them. I really think this author hates women. Anyways. One thing I did like about the story was the journey down into the abyss underneath The Black Farm, and the character Danny. Although I don't get Danny's story and why he wants what he wants so badly, but I do like him overall. And his relationship with the little girl was far more realistic. The ending was extremely predictable and the last lines were stupid. I just... I don't know. I saw on the author's Twitter that he wants to "reinvent the horror genre", and boy for someone who talks a big game, he definitely doesn't live up to it.
	CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN [Sayaka Murata] Genres: Japanese culture, contemporary fiction, character study I expected to like this a little more than I did, but I also had a lot of misconceptions about what the book was truly about. The story follows Keiko Furukura who is an employee at a convenience store (konbini in Japanese). She has no personality outside of being a konbini worker and this makes her abnormal to other people. In order to somewhat fit in with others, she takes on personality traits and mannerisms from people she interacts with at work, so as to hide the fact that she is not a "normal person". She comes across as autistic, or someone with Antisocial Personality Disorder, but I also think that this book is supposed to serve as commentary about the insanely workaholic attitudes that pervades Japanese culture. Keiko has ceased to exist as a normal person and has come to exist solely for her job and nothing more. She has no relationships, no hobbies, and doesn't yearn for anything outside of being at work. She even dreams of work and all her meals are food from work. It's like she becomes a living extension of a konbini. People keep saying the book is "quirky" and "fun", but I think it's more sad than anything. None of the characters are particularly likable and if the author had an intended message when writing this book - I'm not sure I got it. There was nothing that changed over the course of the story, nobody grew, and Keiko continued loving and living the konbini lifestyle. Being someone who hates the "your job is your life" message, I really hated it and Keiko's love for her job didn't speak to me at all. I'm very glad this was a short read, because it's insanely forgettable in my opinion.
	THEN SHE WAS GONE [Lisa Jewell] Genres: crime, mystery, thriller I saw this on the bookshelves at work, but didn't want to pay for a hardback, so I downloaded it on Scribd and read it there. I enjoyed it quite a bit, despite usually not liking books that are from the perspective of a parent. This book was interesting in the fact that it changed perspectives between 4 different people, so that it could get the story across. It didn't even seem weird when it did that either. Anyways, the writing was nice and the story was good, albeit somewhat predictable. Although I couldn't figure out exactly what was going on until it was a bit too late. I can't help but feel like the author made the main male character out to be too villainous considering he was a good guy who didn't really do anything wrong. I don't understand the animosity towards him at all, or the ending he came to. I felt bad for him. Some of the interactions in the book were a bit odd too and never explaied. Like Poppy being really misanthropic and philosophical even at 9 years old - they bring it up once and then never bring it up again, almost like the author forgot that she gave her these weird people-hating lines at one point in the book. Either way the main plot was good, but the ending was lacking.
	COME CLOSER [Sara Gran] Genres: horror, demonic possession, feminism You'll have to forgive me, because any review from here down is going to be written a year after reading these books... Most of them I remember well enough to review, but I don't remember a lot of the details. I was excited about this book, it was short, the narrator is an unnamed woman who has a "relationship" of sorts with the demon Naamah, which in Kabbalistic beliefs is (I'm pretty sure) one of Lilith's sisters. This woman's life slowly falls apart (mostly for the people around her) as she opens up her mind and heart to Naamah. In a way you can see it as a feminist commentary on going wild and being yourself, breaking free from the chains of a society that try to shackle you down and control you. Her husband sucked, her work may have (? I don't remember), and after losing it all, she still has Naamah and she still has her freedom. It was a fun story of demonic possession, and I just discovered that a local independent bookstore in town actual sells a physical copy of it! I'll eventually end up buying it for sure.
	A SHORT STAY IN HELL [Steven L. Peck] Genres: religion, philosophy, supernatural I think I would have originally given this 4 stars, but looking back on it a year later... I love this book. I really do. Sometimes I think about it and I'm just like *sigh* "What a damn good, haunting book!" The story is that a man, a Mormon, dies and ends up in hell because as it turns out... The true religion of the world is Zoroastrianism, so he gets put in a hell that fits him. He is in an endless library where he can get out, but he has to find the story of his life, in order. And since the library is endless, he could be there for millions of years (or forever) and never find all the books that make up the story of his life. It is horrifying and interesting, and while a short book, really sticks with you! I think everyone should read this. It's fantastic!
	CONFESSIONS [Kanae Minato] Genres: crime, thriller, Japanese culture I've probably already mentioned that I'm writing most of these reviews a year later (in 2024) so I can't say I remember a lot about this book, but I do remember that it was pretty interesting! From what I hear in a lot of East Asian true crime it seems like numerous East Asian cultures are very big on revenge. This book was like a huge domino effect of revenge, and while morbid and fucked up, it was kinda funny and I really liked the teacher for her creativity and patience!
	FULL BRUTAL [Kristopher Triana] Genres: splatterpunk, horror, thriller HOW have I gone my whole life (5 years actually, since that's how old this book was when I read it) without reading this book? And also, how is a book, from a female's perspective, written by a man, actually so well-liked by me? I am normally VERY hard on male authors who write from the female perpsective. Maybe it's because this book is supposed to be ridiculous, detailing a few months in the life of a depraved high schooler named Kim White. As awful and terrible as she is, she quickly became a character I was rooting for, even when she was doing absolutely terrible things to people. This book quickly climbed the ranks and became one of my favorite books of all time. I am eventually going to buy it from the author's site. I can't sing this book's praises enough, what a wild ride!
	GIRLS NIGHT OUT [Wendy Dalrymple] Genres: fantasy, contemporary fiction, feminism This was another short read that I heard was pretty good because it was kind of a "girl power" book. It was somewhat fun, but not as much as it could be. I couldn't really relate to the main character - a middle aged wife and mother. I may be what's considered almost middle aged now, and I've been married for almost a decade, but I'm not like... bored with my life? I guess I can attribute that to not having little demons children. Anyways, I think a part of the main character becoming a [REDACTED] was supposed to be an allusion to an STD after being raped? Maybe? Am I reaching? Either way, later on she translates her symptoms into something empowering and uses it to attack other predators. *Shrug* It was alright.
	RECEPTION [Kenzie Jennings] Genres: splatterpunk, horror Alright, I love splatterpunk and I had big hopes for this book since it involved cannibalism! One of my favorite book topics! However, this just seemed over the top, but not in a fun way? It's like the author was trying to take the plot too seriously, but it just came off as goofy? If an author is being over the top for the sake of being over the top, then that usually works for me (see Full Brutal), but again, I think this was one of those books where the author was trying to be clever or thought-provoking, and instead ended the book with one of the most eye-roll inducing tropes ever. I'll give more of her books a try later on, I just didn't like this one all that much.
	THE PILO FAMILY CIRCUS [Will Elliott] Genres: supernatural, fantasy This is one of those books I don't know how to feel about. I also think this one had a lot more potential, and it just kinda didn't give us all the information that we needed to put all the pieces together to truly understand what the hell was going on. There are sequels to this, so I suppose I need to read those to understand WHAT is going on in this book, but other than that, this was just a book about some alternate universe where people are pulled into a circus and made to perform for forever. The main character gets turned into a clown, but has to hold onto his humanity long enough to try and make it out of this strange land. The lore behind this world is completely missing, we know nothing about where it came from, who the Pilo Family is, what they are, and why this exists... Again, maybe I need to read the sequels? I picked this up expecting scary clowns, and got... Something totally weird.
	NO EXIT [Taylor Adams] Genres: crime, suspense, thriller This was one of those books that surprised me. I didn't really think it was fantastically written, or insanely climactic, but despite that, I quite enjoyed it. I guessed the villains quickly on, and even caught onto one of the twists towards the end fast as well. The main girl was alright, kinda stupid, but I did like that she was flawed. I haven't encountered a lot of main characters that are female that have drug addictions, so I did find her interesting. I thought she seemed a bit "overpowered" for a drug-addict going through withdraws during the plot, but there's a nice scene towards the end where she uses that to her advantage. Anyways, like I said, good book! The movie on the other had was just "meh". They changed too many things that I liked in the book and I'm not sure why.
	LAST DAYS [Adam Nevill] Genres: religion, horror, supernatural Man, man, man, man... You had in the first half! Not gonna lie! I wanted to like this book more than I did so bad. The first, well, not even half, the first 3/4 of the book were so freakin' good! Eerie in a way I can't really describe, with a horror that just invades you and takes you over. But by the end it becomes a strange action / comedy? It felt like a TV series that leads you to believe it's going to be a masterpiece, but then the directors are rushed into finishing up the series because it's being cancelled, so they just throw some bullshit at you and you're left thinking "What the fuck was the point in all that?" Anyways, the story itself is about a film maker who wants to make a documentary about a cult and he discovers some scary supernatural shit that the cult was involved with. Again, I didn't hate it, but the ending just left me feeling very disappointed (especially since this was a really long book).
	CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD [Adam Cesare] Genres: suspense, social commentary Alright I was still on the hunt for scary clown books and figured this would have scary clowns in it, hence the name. However, I was shocked to find out that the clowns aren't what they seem...! This turned into a book that was totally different from what I expected, and that's not a bad thing. Now, I can't really say I cared about the social commentary or the politics involved in the story (environmentalism and feminism are more my thing). Anyways, it's going to be turned into a movie by the makers of Smile. I was not as into Smile like everyone else was (I didn't think it was that deep), but whatever, I'll watch it anyways!
	KIN [Kealan Patrick Burke] Genres: splatterpunk, horror This was okay. Good enough to really keep me interested in the plot, but I feel like towards the end everything fizzled out. The gore was brutal and awesome, and some of the other nasty bodily descriptions were gnarly (in a good way). However, the reason behind the villains doing their thing was pretty dumb and trope-ish, the switching of perspectives kinda sucked, and what sucked even more was that the victim wasn't one of the people who really got revenge on anyone? She was just tortured and then...? I'd prefer a kick-ass revenge story (like I Spit On Your Grave or something), but nooo...! And while I really liked the character of uh... the simple-minded black boy (I cannot remember his name, I'm sorry), and his crush on the main girl was cute, I really couldn't get behind him getting kissed by the main girl in the end. Especially after what she'd been through I just don't feel like she'd do that. Obviously this was written by a man.
	EILEEN [OTESSA MOSHFEGH] Genres: fiction, character study, crime I'd heard a lot of good things about Eileen and Otessa in general. I am going to read her other books, but this one really just fizzled into nothing. I expected so much more! I haven't seen the movie yet, although it seems to have added a lot more moxie to the plot. While Eileen was interesting and gross for a woman, and I did enjoy the fact that this little character study of this strange woman really didn't shy away from showing us all her gross flaws, I just felt like the book went nowhere. Which I mean, if this is supposed to mirror real life, then maybe that's the point? Sometimes our lives don't become all that interesting despite the efforts we put into it...? I don't know. Anyways, it was meh.
	THIS IS WHERE WE TALK THINGS OUT [Caitlin Marceau] Genres: suspense, contemporary fiction I read that this had some "winter" themes, and since it was my last book of the year, I wanted to read it to spook myself out before Christmas. (Who likes creepy Christmas? Meee!) Anyways, damn this book made me uncomfortable! It's not a long read at all, very short, and I believe I finished it within 2 or 3 days during my lunch breaks at work. Either way, I have an okay relationship with my mom, but I don't respect her as a mother because she sucked during my childhood. Somehow this book made me like... angry at my mom out of nowehre just from how awful the mom in the book was LOL! Like, my empathy for the character made me mad about my own life. Anyways, the ending is fucked up! What a fun, happy, holiday read!