All the ARCs I Read in August: 10 Book Reviews

 

 Hey, everyone! I'm super behind on my reviews and ARC reviews, especially, sorry publishers! So while I've been reading like a queen, my reviewing skills have been subpar this year. Hopefully I can get the balling with this post and find some motivation. I also started teaching this week, so my free time will be limited and I don't know how often I will be uploaded, but I will try to be consistent. 

Vampire State Building by Ange, Patrick Renault, & Charlie Adlard

2 stars 

 

I won’t lie. I picked this book up and requested it on Netgalley solely because it said from the artist of The Walking Dead and I like the style of those comics, so I was excited to read a horror comic. This one started out with promise. It follows a man who is about to leave for combat in the army and his friends celebrate his farewell in his last day in New York. It ends horribly when vampires take over the town and the group find themselves locked in the Empire State Building. Que the title. I didn’t hate this at first. In fact, I thought it was it was going to be 4 stars and then I got to the mythology behind the vampires and it was so racist and stereotypical that I lost all interest. The vampires originate from cannibal Native Americans. *face palm* In America, the cannibal Native trope has plagued our media to the point where I remember having a teacher tell me in high school history that these Natives were not cannibals, but these were because for some reason we have to distinguish cultural practices with our stereotypes. A large portion of Natives don’t even practice cannibalism, but we are going to completely forget how many times the ancestors of the British ate people during plagues and famines. Stereotypes towards the Native population need to be discussed as well as looked at from a critical lens and this story shows a complete lack of looking at a stereotype and its cultural implications. I’m sorry, but having Native Americans be cannibals who become immortal vampires to take over the world is just not a culturally aware plot. It’s offensive and steeped in cultural stereotypes. It got worse and worse as the graphic novel went on. So, yeah, I was annoyed. I was even more annoyed because I spent the month of August reading two books (which were five stars-The Only Good Indians and Moon of the Crusted Snow) by Natives because I wanted to learn more about tribes and reservations and the history and implications as well as cultural pushbacks and oppression that these people groups have faced. This graphic novel did not handle this stereotype with care, but instead took the Natives are evil cannibals’ trope and turned them into immortal vampires hellbent on destroying the world. I don’t recommend it for that alone, however, I recognize that may not be a drawback for many people and if this still piques your interest then pick the graphic novel up. The story itself is intense and the chase scenes were fun, but the plot was horrendous and it deadened my excitement over the text. 

Whimsical Writing Scale: 1

Character Scale: 2

Villain Scale: I am omitting this because I found it offensive.

Plotastic Scale: 1.5 (just because I liked the chase scenes before I knew where the creatures came from)

Art Scale: 3

Cover Thoughts: Love it. Creepy, bloody, and alluring. Too bad the inside makes me unhappy.

Thank you, Netgalley and Diamond Book Distributors, for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

Venus in the Blind Spot by Junji Ito

3.75 stars for the overall collection

Hi, this is my first time reading Junji Ito and experiencing his horror manga and I am a fan. Like why did I think his stuff would be so disgusting and traumatizing that I couldn’t read it. Well, I won’t lie the opening story in the horror manga collection will leave some readers traumatized. Think Sally from the Hotel season of American Horror Story when she sews her two lovers to her body because she loves them so much and they die. Yea, the first story is like that but more intense, so if you think that will make you throw up then maybe skip this collection or Junji Ito altogether. I, however, totally am hyped by this new discovery and I’m obsessed. I loved it. The experience was visceral and now I will break down my thoughts on all of the stories.

Billions Alone- 4.5 stars Like I said above this story is like Sally from that season. We follow a guy who has agoraphobia and an old friend reaches out to him and encourages him to come back outside. While this is going on people meeting in organized settings are being kidnapped, murdered, and sewn together in giant intricate spiral patterns all over the city. The main reason I’m not giving this a full five stars is because 40 pages was not long enough and this deserves an entire novel to flesh out the beauty, frustration, and spiraling of a city as well as the main character who is becoming more comfortable going outside amidst the end of the world (at least for this town).

The Human Chair- 3.5 stars This is a chilling story about a story being told to a woman in a shop as she views a chair that once belonged to a famous writer who was being stalked by someone who had sewn themselves into a chair in her home. Horrifying. No, thanks. I liked the concept, but this story was missing a certain something really that makes my horror heart skip some beats.

An Unearthly Love- 3 stars Doll obsessions are not my thing and this one follows a woman married to a man who she thinks is cheating on her. It turns out to be a doll which leads to some complications in their marriage as one would expect. I felt bad for the woman, but like I said, not my kind of story.

Venus in the Blind Spot- 5 stars This story was perfect. It has the allure of being a creepy a UFO story, but it is much more sinister than a simple UFO. This is a story that I barely want to explain because even talking too much about it would give away its brilliance.

The Licking Woman- 4 stars I should’ve disliked this, but it was so weird and tragic. It follows a woman with a giant tongue licking people in the face and causing them to die and the effects this woman has on one woman after her boyfriend and dog die from the encounter. The level of weirdness and that horrifying tongue worked so well for the story.

Master Umezz and Me- 2 stars I didn’t care for the art in this one and I wasn’t a fan of the story. It was a biographical reflection on Juji Ito’s love for the writer Umezz and I appreciated the story, but the art was not good.

How Love Came to Professor Kirida- 3 stars This story follows a writer who is being haunted by a girl who loved and respected his feedback. His constant rejection leads to tragedy and her spirit teaches him love. It’s not as uplifting as it sounds lol. I didn’t care for this one, but I liked the plot.

The Enigma of Amigara Fault- 5 stars This story was so horrifying. I can still see the outline of the bodies being stretched in the fault lines for miles. It follows the story of fault shaped bodies being found in a mountain that are the exact shape of people. Horrifying and creepy.
The Sad Tale of the Principal Post- 3 stars This is the most forgettable story in the collection. The concept is there, but the execution isn’t fleshed out for it to be memorable or groundbreaking in the horror genre.

Keepsake- 4.5 stars This story is so gross because it’s about a child who is born from a dead woman and if you get grossed out by SPOILER necrophilia SPOILER then skip this one. I loved the story and how it unfolded. It felt dramatic in the most twisted way.

Overall, this collection is super strong and full of intense and gripping stories. There were a couple that stood out and really stole the show. I think many readers will enjoy this horror short story collection.

Cover Thoughts: OBSESSED. Love it and every time I see it pop up on my Goodreads for an add, I get excited.

Thank you, Netgalley and Viz Media, for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

5 stars

The Only Good Indians follows the story of four Blackfeet men dealing with the consequences of the slaughter of a herd of elk on the reservation when they were young boys. One of those elk was different from the rest—she was pregnant. She’s come back for revenge and she won’t stop until every single Blackfoot and the one child that was born of one of the men are dead. This is a beautiful book. It’s a book about being Blackfoot in a world that doesn’t understand what it means to be Blackfoot and being Blackfoot in a world that no longer accepts the traditions and what it means when those traditions fade away or are desecrated. I know many who are not Native won’t get this book and as someone who isn’t Native, I was looking to read a horror novel with Native American elements not a horror novel with only white American elements and I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much. I also went in fully expecting this book to be a 5-star read because it was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I couldn’t wait to read this and when its release month came, I was scared to dip my toe in and once I did, I was blown away.

The prologue was a gripping start to showing the slaughter of one of the men in the group, but it did it in such a way that made it look like a mob accident gone wrong with revenge on the Indian man in an all-white bar. This elk doesn’t play, y’all. If you think that is too simple of a beginning wait until you read the first part, The House That Ran Red. I didn’t get what it meant until I got what it meant and boy, did it make my stomach turn. An absolute BLOOD BATH. I’ve never read anything so gory and upsetting. There was so much built up in the first part that when the house start running red (not literally, of course) I was so stunned that all I could do was flop my mouth like a fish and yell, “WAIT, WHAT?!??!” It caught me off guard because I was continuing to expect this book to stay in the slow build and exposition, but NOPE. This book is blood bath after blood bath and ends with an epic basketball battle between an elk and an all-star high school basketball player. Go into this book expecting executions upon executions because this elk is getting revenge. It’s not playing tricks. It’s out for the same blood that was taken and stolen from it. I have decided I never wanted to be haunted or hunted by an elk.

The commentary this book provides on colonization and stereotyping of the Native people and tribes is so important and I thoroughly enjoyed walking through and evaluating what I was familiar with and what was new to me. Really what Stephen Graham Jones does throughout this book is answer the question, “What makes a good little Indian?” This question permeates throughout the text and offers many different viewpoints from each man in the group as well as the daughter of one. It goes a step even further and offers it from the perspective of an angry and vengeful elk. There are many layers and I would love to reread this in the future and dissect it on a deeper level.

Whimsical Writing Scale: 5

The first main character we encounter in the part one is Lewis. Lewis is married to a white woman named Petra and lives off of the rez. He works for the Post Office and there is now one other Native woman, Shaney, from a different tribe working there (she actually turns out to be connected to another person we meet later on- THE TRAGEDY). This storyline gets wild. It goes from being am I being haunted by the ghost an elk, to I need to kill this person because they are possessed, to full on killing spree. It is horrifying and trigger warnings for the brutalization of women, especially Native women which is a huge issue in both the US and Canada (but that’s a conversation for another day).

The next two characters we follow are Gabe and Cassidy. We also meet Gabe’s daughter, Denorah, who is an all-star basketball player in high school. The two men are setting up a sweat lodge to get closer to their roots and a young boy who has just lost a friend in an accident is going to join them while his father (a local cop) will keep watch. The Sweat Lodge Massacre is exactly what it sounds like and the build up was brilliant. The execution was satisfying and Stephen Graham Jones is great at having the Elk Head Woman lie in wait until just the right moment. It was horrifying, gritty, and I’m not going to lie, I BAWLED LIKE A BABY BECAUSE IT WAS SO UNFAIR AND POIGNANT all at the same time. That’s the brilliance of a good horror novel. It’s steeped in poignancy and the horror makes sense. It’s not gratuitous and heartbreaking for the sake of being over the top, it’s telling a story and showing the horrors of where humanity can go and will go if pushed far enough by just the right source. The ending made me cry and told so beautifully what need to be said. This isn’t a revenge story, it’s a story for a group of people that I had the honor of peaking into and learning more about. What a story. I am blown away. This will stay with me forever.

Characters Scale: 5 (we lover layers)

Villain Scale: 5 (I think this is my favorite villain of the year and reading 157 books so far, that’s saying something)

Overall, you have to read this book. You need to read this book. Even if you hate horror, you should read this book because it’s not white horror and it’s not a white story. It’s the story of how being a good Indian isn’t wrapped up into one narrative like America wants to convince everyone outside of a reservation. It’s layered and full of pain and hope. There is so much to unpack here and I can’t recommend this book enough. I probably did a horrible job of explaining it and you should definitely read some reviews by Native reviewers because their words matter so much and they have said some amazing things to take into account. So, go buy a copy of this book!

Plotastic Scale: 5

Cover Thoughts: OBSESSED. More animal heads on covers, please.

Thank you, Netgalley and Saga Press, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am going buy my own copy!

 

•  I already reviewed Finna by Nate Marshall. You can check out my review of the poetry collection here.

 

Crown Noble by Bianca Phipps

4.75 stars

This poetry collection was brilliant. It’s very short. Shorter than I wanted it to be. I wish it was longer. This collection hit me in a lot of ways. It felt lyrical and it flowed well. It was honest and raw. The emotions behind the poems were palpable and Phipps provides a poetry collection filled with poems that pack a punch. I just wish it was longer, but oh how, I loved it anyway. Definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of poetry or looking for a short collection to dip their toes into.

Whimsical Writing Scale: 5

Plotastic Scale: 4.5

Cover Thoughts: It’s a sweet cover. It’s not a favorite, but I really like the simplicity of the fruit tree.

Thank you, Netgalley and Button Poetry, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

 

Colossians: A Biblical Study by Joyce Meyer

2 stars

This is a Bible Study about the book of Colossians. I don’t have much to say about this Bible study because it was pretty subpar. It was your typical American Christian Bible Study and it started out offering context at the very beginning (which I was so excited about) and then it became more about how you can do all these things to be a better Christian by doing __ and __. It’s just not what I was looking for. I want more from Bible studies. I want Biblical and historical context; I want theological studies and deep questions. I wouldn’t even do this study in a Bible study because it doesn’t ask any in-depth questions. This study lacks the theological depth that I am looking for. My best friend also read the Galatians study Meyer’s did and she had a lot of the same issues that I did with the Colossians one. I think this would interest people who are avid fans of Meyer’s teaching or who lack a history in theological reading and read the Bible more for personal application (which is dangerous, but I recognize many do this because they lack resources in churches and among friends to have good discipleship programs). I’m not trying to sound so negative, but I guess I’m just weary about recommending this study. I think if you feel the leading of the Holy Spirit to read it, then He must be trying to tell you something or leading you to a particular Scripture or thought, but besides that you can pass on this one and find better theological commentators.

Whimsical Writing Scale: 2

Plotastic Scale: 2

Cover Thoughts: Typical Instagram Bible photo.

Thank you, Netgalley and FaithWords, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

 

Here at Dawn: Poetry and Prose by Beau Taplin

2 stars

This collection focuses on poetry and prose with a blending of illustrations and art. The art is very beautiful and adds a great layer to the collection. However, the collection was a HUGE letdown. This collection has a lot of promise, but I personally did not care for the use of diction and the particular poetry that Taplin writes. It was just not for me. I think why I was so letdown was because the introduction talks about his deep love for magic and I thought this poetry collection would feel magical. It didn’t and the poetry was your typical modern poetry. It was nothing spectacular and I think many will enjoy the collection, but it wasn’t for me.

Whimsical Writing Scale: 1.5

Plotastic Scale: 2

Art Scale: 2

Cover Thoughts: Beautiful cover.

Thank you, Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing, for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

Eighteen Inches: The Distance Between the Heart and the Mind by Mirtha Michelle Castro Mármol

4.75 stars

This is a poetry and prose collection that focuses on the theme of there being eighteen inches between the heart and the mind and the battles that author faces with love, romance, religion, sexual assault, death, and cultural experiences. The introduction sets up the title of the book through a story where the author gets in a fight and the advice her father gives her afterwards. I loved the infusion of each chapter starting with prose and being followed by poetry. It worked so much for me. I thought the poems were beautiful and the prose was heart wrenching and steeped in honest words and experiences. I cried multiple times throughout reading the collection. I kept screenshotting poems and sending them to my best friend because they were so good. This collection was wonderful. It was full of pain, suffering, beauty, and hope. I loved the balance of prose and poetry. It was beautifully done and it worked so well. I will leave a trigger warning for date rape though because the chapter on it was very intense and goes though a wide of emotions before, after, and when the trauma comes back up after the author tried to bury it. This collection touches on many important topics and I want more readers to know about it. I can’t recommend this collection enough. It is worth reading and I have feeling it will not be popular because the cover is not as mainstream or appealing as most collections.

Whimsical Writing Scale: 4.5

Plotastic Scale: 5

Cover Thoughts: I love the blurred photograph, but it does kind of make me dizzy if I look at it for too long.

Thank you, Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

Fangs by Sarah Andersen

4 stars

This is my second time writing my review because I wrote one right after I finished reading and Goodreads lost it and didn’t post it. Yay. This is a graphic novel collection with webcomics about a vampire and a werewolf falling in love and dating. It was cute, cheesy, and it made me laugh. I really enjoyed this short collection and I liked the panels. The jokes and the puns were so funny and it made for a cute and enjoyable read which was what I needed before a giant hurricane hit my state. I’m glad I read and I would definitely read more about this couple because I love vampires and werewolves. My twelve-year-old self was trash for the paranormal and its still in my veins. I definitely recommend this to webcomic fans and anyone looking for a fun and digestible (lol because one wans to eat you) book about a couple who are supernatural.

Whimsical Writing Scale: 4

Character Scale: 4

Plotastic Scale: 3.75

Art Scale: 4

Cover Thoughts: OBSESSED. I love it!

Thank you, Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing, for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

 

Becoming a Next-Level Prophet: An Invitation to Increase Your Gift by Jennifer LeClaire

4.25 stars

This book is for Christians looking to grow in the gift of prophecy or further walk out their prophetic giftings. I know that this is more for charismatic Christians, but I think anyone looking to learn more about prophesy in the Bible and how the Holy Spirit uses those gifts from God to operate and manifest to further edify the church (Jesus). LeClaire writes particularly those already familiar with spiritual gifts that Paul writes about and this is not for new beginners, but more beginning prophets (I would say younger prophets would greatly benefit from these Biblical lessons and the advice she imparts). I greatly enjoyed this book, but I did have a few qualms theologically. LeClaire does have some excellent chapters in here. I benefited greatly in my own spiritual walk with the chapters on Prayer and Warfare. They were very timely chapters for my own life and the work that God was doing in me as well as out of me to affect other Christians. One thing I loved about this book is that LeClaire uses a lot of Scripture and it’s not just using it to make her point, but chapters are dedicated to teaching a passage of Scripture in relation to prophecy and a Biblical character. I loved that! It really enhanced my understanding and made me reflect on Bible stories that I hadn’t read in a while.

For me personally, I had drawbacks with some theological standpoints LeClaire makes which is why I’m not giving this a higher rating. However, those theological points were one or two sentences sprinkled throughout the first five chapters and I don’t feel that it was a big enough issue that it took away and contradicted chapters or even misinterpreted the Bible. Due that I don’t feel the need to elaborate and pick the qualms I had apart because they don’t take away from the overall text.

I recommend this book to any believer in Christ looking to be a willing vessel to God and open to walking in prophesy. This is a very niche book and I believe only people who operate in the gift of prophesy and intercession prayer groups will be drawn to this book, but for those groups of people, this is an excellent resource.

Whimsical Writing Scale: 4.25

Plotastic Scale: 4.25

Cover Thoughts: It’s pretty boring and standard.

Thank you, Chosen Books, for providing me a physical copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick

4.75 stars

Where to start in reviewing I Killed Zoe Spanos without giving anything away? The plot follows Anna as she confesses to killing Zoe Spanos in a police interrogation and then flashes back to how she got to the interrogation and the confession and the events leading up to it. We also get a podcast and the perspective of Martina, who is best friend with Zoe’s sister, and she wants to find out where Zoe went and what happened to her. This is an intense YA thriller that has wonderful build up and is set in a bougie coastal tourist town with a bunch of upscale white people, except for Zoe’s boyfriend who happens to be one of the few Black people in the town. It leads to Martina being suspicious of him since he was her boyfriend and there was some friction (it also leads to a great conversation on being Black and under suspicion for something you didn’t do). I don’t want to give really anything about this story away because believe me you will want to know who killed Zoe Spanos and how she died. I didn’t guess correctly in who did it or how she died.

There are some things you should know going in: Kit Frick heavily relies on Gothic suspense in regards to houses and secrets passageways (so if that’s your thing, this is it), the audiobook has a full-cast and the podcast episodes are wonderfully done, the pacing gets a little slow in the early middle as Anna adjusts to being an au pair, but once we hit the built up to her looking like the missing Zoe it gets juicy, this is a character driven plot and thriller- the mystery is all wrapped up into the characters and what Anna can uncover, Anna is an unreliable narrator, nothing is as it seems and you should be suspicious of everyone, and the ending is satisfying and frustratingly good all at the same time. This is a YA mystery that hits the mark. It’s smart, daring, and sophisticated. I can’t recommend this enough!

Whimsical Writing Scale: 5

I’ll briefly talk about the characters, but I won’t go into depth. Anna is our main character and she is your typical unreliable narrator- spotty memory, past with heavy drinking and alcohol abuse, and she looks exactly like the missing Zoe Spanos.

Paisley is the girl that Anna is caring for over the summer and she sees a lot of supish things in Herron Mills. I loved her energy and the innocence she brought to the story. I usually love kid characters and Paisley was one who worked and developed the story.

Caden is Zoe’s boyfriend and he lives next door to Paisley in a giant fancy manor with a lot of secrets. One of the biggest secrets isn’t so much as did Caden do it (because it’s obvious he didn’t), but what happened between him and Zoe that lead to Zoe changing?

Martina is the best friend of Zoe’s sister, Aster, and hosts a podcast dedicated to locating Zoe. She offers the journalistic side to the novel and it blends well with Anna being able to learn more about Herron Mills and Zoe, but also in uncovering what happened to Zoe after Anna confesses.

There’s Max who went to Brown with Zoe and was in the biology department wit her who seems to have a weird obsession with Anna and keeps popping up.

Also, keep note of Anna’s best friend because she plays a big role in the unfolding of the story as well.

Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 4.25

Character Scale: 5

Villain Scale: 5 (what a shocker!)

Overall, I think more people need to read (or listen to) I Killed Zoe Spanos because it is a fantastic addition to the YA mystery/thriller genre. It’s a strong book steeped in secrets, atmosphere, unreliable characters, and a privileged town that doesn’t take anything seriously because money is power (their cops are a JOKE). The commentary is great and I think teens will eat this up! I know I did and I want to get a copy for my classroom because this is a book many people will be able to enjoy.

Plotastic Scale: 4.75

Cover Thoughts: I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this cover! The colors, the glasses, the illustration. It’s all perfect.

Thank you, Netgalley and Margaret K. McElderry Books, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

Have you read any of these books? Do you plan on reading any of them? Let me know down below in the comments!