moonie - books

2025 Book Reviews

	Boys in The Valley ★★★★☆ Written by Philip Fracassi Genre: Historical, Religious, Historical A good read for the winter months. It's about a Catholic orphanage for boys in Pennsylvania, in the early 1900s that gets infested with something demonic. It's touted as being like The Lord of the Flies meets The Exorcist and I mean... Yeah? Kinda. It's a longer book, but I got through it quickly, because the plot was good and I wanted to know what happened to the boys. The ending was sad, but it was good. The whole book was well-written too, so I'd like to read something else by this author later.		Cirque Du Freak - Hunters of the Dusk ★★★☆☆ Written by Darren Shan Genre: Vampires, Adventure, Supernatural Despite the fact that this is my favorite series, I guess I can't say that this is my favorite entry within the series. It was literally like a filler episode on TV. I mean, the positives are that Vancha and Evanna are finally introduced here (although they'd been mentioned in earlier books), but other than that, nothing of interest happens.
	Guillotine ★★★★☆ Written by Delilah S. Dawson Genre: Thriller, Social Commentary, Horror This, while not exceptionally written, or doing a service to teach people an extraordinary moral (although I think it may have been trying), was still a fun and violent read. This one is touted as like The Menu meets Ready or Not and I can see that! It's definitely a "you go girl!" type of revenge book, and it does have a happy ending, so it's worth the read.		Scanlines ★★★☆☆ Written by Todd Keisling Genre: Supernatural, Horror, Suicide This just did not affect me the way it did other people apparently. It's kinda like The Ring, there's a cursed video of a man committing suicide, and after you watch it, you're compelled to reach the same fate. I guess I don't view suicide in such a dark, wretched way this author does (or other people for that matter), so even hearing about the guy in the video, I was kinda like "good for you!"? I dunno. It just didn't do anything for me.
	W1LL1AM ★★★☆☆ Written by Mason Coile Genre: Science Fiction, Horror, Supernatural Definitely not what I expected it to be. I love creepy dolls, and this one was supposed to be about an AI-led doll that turns dark, like M3GAN, which I loved. However, this didn't go in a way that I really enjoyed. Although I will say that the twist did catch me by surprise! I wasn't expecting that! The ending also wasn't a good one, but it was to be expected. This was just an alright read.		Haunt Sweet Home ★★☆☆☆ Written by Sarah Pinsker Genre: Supernatural, Horror, Mystery This was...alright. The writing style was nice, so it's nothing against how the author writes (as in her voice), but the plot was just, confusing I suppose? The main lesson of the story was basically for the main girl to take charge of her life and stop sitting on the sidelines having a pity party for herself, which I mean, that's a fine lesson. But her family really does suck. They treat her like she's a side character in everything they do, so why is it up to the YOUNGEST member of the family to make the change? She shoulda said "fuck you" to all of them and left town. The whole "haunted piece of wood" thing was strange too. I'm not sure what to think of that.
	Allies of the Night ★★★★☆ Written by Darren Shan Genre: Vampires, Adventure, Supernatural Now we're getting somewhere! The last book was basically filler, so this is when things start to get good. Darren runs into people from his past, which is exciting, and then things are slowly beginning to get revealed to him about the War of Scars and who he can really trust.		Killers of the Dawn ★★★★☆ Written by Darren Shan Genre: Vampires, Adventure, Supernatural More exciting plot! Although, this is definitely the saddest book in the entire series due to a very important character dying. But towards the end of this one an even bigger twist is revealed, which is a very important part of the plot.
	Bloom ★★★☆☆ Written by Delilah S. Dawson Genre: Romance, Thriller, Horror I didn't realize this was the same author as Guillotine until I got over halfway through the book. Oh man is the dialogue pretentious in this one! I get that the main character is an English professor, but Jesus H. Christ, she was so annoying. For that, and many other reasons too. She definitely got what she was asking for in the end, I believe, because the object of her affections throws up SO MANY red flags! Anyways, this is a slow burn, kinda like the movie Audition. You don't get to the scary part until the last quarter of the book, and by then I was just ready for it to be over.		Lake of Souls ★★★★★ Written by Darren Shan Genre: Vampires, Adventure, Supernatural I'm not done with this one yet, so we'll see...!