Let’s Wrap: October

Now that it’s been a few months since I graduated, all the months are kind of blurring into one because I don’t have a lot of structure. I’m still trying to work out what I want to do as a career (besides write books), but I’m taking my time as I want to be sure.

Other than that, not much happened, because I lead an exceedingly boring life, as you can see. I won a few competitions on Twitter, one to get a copy of Morning Star by Pierce Brown, the final book in the Red Rising trilogy which I’ve adored so far! The book arrived today and I’m so excited to read it. The other book I won was an ARC of dystopian crime thriller Yesterday by Felicia Map, which I featured here in Stacking the Shelves.

I also signed up for NaNoWriMo this November for my third try, but I’m just not feeling it. I love the community of NaNoWriMo – it’s so welcoming and helpful – yet I’ve never managed to come close to even hitting the 50,000 words. It’s just too much pressure and I’m not the fastest writer. I’ve been writing fine without NaNoWriMo the past few months so I think I’ll just do it at my own pace.

Anyway, let’s get started with the wrap-up.

• The Willoughby Book Club Unboxing #3
• Review: Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
• Halloween Read-A-Thon
• It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #1
• Waiting On Wednesday: Scythe by Neal Shusterman
• Review: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
• The Sunday Post #17
• Halloween Read-A-Thon Review: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
• It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #2 + Update On My Week-Long Absence
• Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Horror Novels On My Wishlist
• Halloween Read-A-Thon Review: The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich
• Stacking the Shelves | Sequels and ARCs
• The Sunday Post #18

I haven’t been nearly as active this month, mainly because I’ve been ill, but I’ll try and pick it up this November!

I’m nearly halfway through my ARC of Gilded Cage by Vic James and I’m really enjoying it. The characterisation is great, with a few of the characters being some of the best and most interesting I’ve read about in a while. The plot as a whole is also very intriguing. I’m now just hoping it doesn’t suddenly bomb or have a terrible ending. Fingers crossed!

After that, I think I’m going to try A Darker Shade of Magic, followed by An Ember in the Ashes. I’ve been talking about reading these two for sooooo long so I promise I’m going to get to them soon! After that, I’m thinking either a Historical novel or a Contemporary. Or Sci-Fi; I don’t know how long I can hold off from reading Gemina or even Morning Star. 

I have a few posts planned for this month and perhaps some discussions on writing, so keep your eyes peeled!

How has your October been? Have you read any of the books I’ve talked about? Are you taking part in NaNoWriMo? Let me know in the comments below!

The Sunday Post #18

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted at The Caffeinated Book Reviewer in which book bloggers recap their week and look at what’s to come.

My boyfriend came to visit on Friday and just went home today so I was busy all this weekend and haven’t done any blog hopping. I’ll try and catch up next week! However, it was lovely seeing Mark as we’re currently doing long-distance after uni ended. It’s difficult but we’re managing it!

Anyway, that’s my little update. Here were the posts this week:

• It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #2 + Update On My Week-Long Absence
• Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Horror Novels On My Wishlist
• Halloween Read-A-Thon Review: The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich
• Stacking the Shelves | Sequels and ARCs

I finished my last book in the Halloween Read-A-Thon, The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich, which was sadly a bit of a disappointment. After that, I started my ARC of Gilded Cage by Vic James. I’m only a few chapters in but I’m really liking it. The atmosphere is great and the characters are intriguing, not to mention the opening was especially good.

After that, I was planning to start A Darker Shade of Magic but An Ember In the Ashes has been looking at me from the bookshelf. I’m really tempted to start that instead. However, I’ve had A Darker Shade of Magic longer.

I also got Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2) this week and whilst I’m itching to read it, I’m going to be patient and read some books I’ve had for longer first. Whether I can actually be that patient is another thing entirely!

Instead of music this week, I’m going to post a film trailer! Specifically, the new teaser for Guardians of the Galaxy 2. I am so so excited for this film, and even more excited for the Avengers Infinity War films when the Guardians will meet up with the Avengers. That’s going to be one strange encounter.

Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

Halloween Read-A-Thon Review: The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

Genre: Horror / Young Adult

Publisher: Orion, 2015

My Rating: 

Synopsis: Twenty-five years ago, Elmbridge High School burned down. The blaze killed three and injured twenty, and one pupil, Carly Johnson, disappeared. For two decades, little was revealed about what became known as the Johnson Incident.

Until now.

A diary has been found in the ruins of the school. In this diary, Kaitlyn Johnson, Carly’s twin, tells of the strange and disturbing sequence of events leading to the incident.

But Kaitlyn doesn’t exist. She never has.

My Review

This review is part of the Halloween Read-A-Thon hosted by Lauren @ Wonderless Reviews! I also reviewed I Am Legend here.

I really wanted to like this novel for two reasons:

1. I was lucky enough to meet Dawn Kurtagich and get this book signed.
2. I’m trying to give YA Horror a go, instead of just sticking to clearly adult Horror.

But however hard I tried, I just couldn’t enjoy this book as much as I wanted to.

I’ve seen mixed reviews for it. Some people have loved it, others just couldn’t get to grips with it, like me. It’s a novel with a promising premise, a truly unique one, and that definitely drew me in at the beginning. Carly and Kaitlyn are what some in the novel call “two souls in one body”. Carly manifests in the day, Kaitlyn at night. The sceptics, however, say that Carly is the real person and Kaitlyn a product of Dissociative Identity Disorder, an “alter” personality created by a traumatic event. It starts strong, dropping little hints about Carly and Kaitlyn’s life, creating unsettling details. But, for me, the first time I knew that this book had perhaps gone slightly astray was when a scene tried to shock me quite early on. I felt there hadn’t been enough build-up to warrant this sudden reveal of something scary and, as such, it didn’t freak me out.

I’ve read a fair few horror novels in my time that have genuinely terrified me, making my heart race as I read them, and keeping me up at night. However, The Dead House never managed this. And that’s what we read horror for, right? To feel scared. If you’re not scared, then the book isn’t doing its job. I think this book could perhaps be scary for some, as some reviewers have said, but it wasn’t scary enough for me. Is this because it’s Young Adult? Are the publishers trying to tone it down a bit? I’m not sure. After all, I’ve heard that Kurtagich’s second novel The Creeper Man is much scarier than The Dead House, and this novel did contain a fair amount of gore. It was the suspense and terror that was lacking.

So, why wasn’t I scared? Why couldn’t I get into this novel? Well, like I said, there was a “shock” scene too early on that killed the suspense trying to be created. But overall I think it was because the plot was quite muddied. There were a lot of different events that didn’t seem to correlate with one another. I won’t go into too much detail as I don’t want to give anything away, but all these interweaving sub-plots never satisfyingly tied together. From the beginning of the novel, we aren’t sure if this is a psychological horror or a paranormal horror. That ambiguity is there for a reason, yet neither side really explains its case coherently.

Honestly, I’m having trouble putting this into words because I’m still a bit confused about the entire plot. There was the diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder and both Carly and Kaitlyn’s denial of that, there was a strange ghostly girl, there were random murders, there was a fictional Scottish magical mysticism known as “Mala”. Even though this all did intertwine, it just never felt right. Nothing quite clicked into place; there was no “aha!” moment. It just felt confused.

Also, I never warmed to the characters. It may seem like this book will be equal parts POV of Carly and Kaitlyn, but really it was just Kaitlyn. I never quite learned who Carly was and didn’t much care. I’m not sure if that was on purpose, however. Kaitlyn I would warm to and then grow distant from. It was a lot of back and forth and I couldn’t quite make up my mind about her. I know she was going through some tough stuff but I couldn’t connect, especially towards the end of the novel where some of her actions felt forced.

The other characters I wasn’t that bothered about. I think they all went to slightly unbelievable lengths to help Kaitlyn with her predicament. They were more pawns to get the plot moving than real people. The only one I warmed to a little was Carly and Kaitlyn’s school friend Naida. She was interesting, especially with all her Mala beliefs. That was perhaps the most exciting aspect of the novel, the Mala rituals and mysticism. However, it also got a bit tangled up by the ending. The climax was messy and a little rushed. I saw the big reveal coming, although I didn’t believe in it. It was another plot point that didn’t feel like it fit properly and the writing, whilst it started well, got harried towards the end.

So, sounds like this should be a one star review after I’ve been slagging it off so much! In actuality, it did have plus points. I really enjoyed the format in which it was written, with the diary entries, camera footage, interviews and files. I thought the changes between the formats were good and made me want to keep reading, to see what happened next. There were also interesting anecdotes from whoever supposedly compiled all this evidence together. Some of these could be quite unsettling at times.

I also obviously enjoyed the premise. Despite my grievances, I wanted to know what happened and there was no chance of me ever DNFing it. The novel showed a lot of promise. If it had been better organised and executed with more skill, it could have been really great. However, this is of course Kurtagich’s first novel so those are things I’m willing to overlook. I will definitely be picking up her second novel, The Creeper Man, because I’ve heard it’s much better and I’m keen to see if she’s improved.

Overall, it certainly wasn’t the scariest horror I’ve ever read, not to mention it was a messy plot and the characters were a bit bland, but I would recommend it to those who perhaps are scared quite easily yet want to see if they can get into horror slowly, or just get into the mood for Halloween.

And that concludes my part in the Halloween Read-A-Thon! I only had two horror novels to read but, if you’re still taking part, I hope you enjoy it! And thanks again to Lauren for organising it and making those great graphics!

Have you read The Dead House? What about The Creeper Man? (Or And The Trees Crept In for the US version). Did you enjoy them? Do you agree with my review? Disagree? Let me know in the comments below!

 

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #2 + Update On My Week-Long Absence

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted at The Book Date where bloggers look at what they’re currently reading and what’s up next in their TBR!

So, why did I disappear for a week? Well, I fell ill and didn’t feel up to blogging. That’s basically it. Not all that dramatic, but it did mean I couldn’t go and visit my boyfriend this weekend, and I missed meeting Garth Nix, my favourite author! So it was a pretty crappy week last week.

I’m back now though and determined to do a bit of blog hopping this week to catch up on what everyone has been up to.

Anyway, what have I been reading?

What I Read Last Week

As part of Lauren’s Halloween Read-A-Thon, I read and reviewed horror classic I Am Legend. Whilst it was quite different to the Will Smith film adaptation, I thought the book was actually better overall. Check out my review here!

I Am Legend: 

What I’m Currently Reading

I’m still reading my second and final book for the Halloween Read-A-Thon, Dawn Kurtagich’s YA psychological horror The Dead House. It’s been a week since I started it and I’m plodding on, partly because I was ill and didn’t read for three days, and partly because I’ve been a little underwhelmed.

To put it simply, it’s just not scary enough and I think the plot is currently a little all over the place. I have about a quarter of the book left to go so I’ll have to see how it all wraps up. It’s certainly not a bad book, but there’s definitely room for improvement.

Up Next

I had actually been planning on reading V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic but I’m putting that on hold as I remembered I still have an ARC of Gilded Cage to read. I grabbed a physical copy at YALC this year and I was so excited.

The e-book is due for release this December and the paperback in January so I better get round to reading and reviewing to help you guys decide on whether you want to give it a go! I’ve heard great things from other ARC reviewers so far so I have high hopes for this book.

Have you read any of these books? Did you enjoy them? Or do you want to read them? And how has everyone’s week been? I’ve missed the book blogging community!

 

The Sunday Post #17

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted at The Caffeinated Book Reviewer in which book bloggers recap their week and look at what’s to come.

I’ve missed a few Sunday Posts recently but I’m back to update you all! I’ve been working and sorting out my life, looking at what I want to do career-wise. Of course, I want to be a published author someday, and I’m getting closer to finishing my book with only ten chapters left to go! (And then the inevitable editing). However, I need to do something in the mean time in case I never manage to get published, so I’m thinking of training to be a secondary school English teacher. I’ll just have to see how it goes.

However, I did discover recently that I am one of the shortlisted authors for the HG Wells Short Story Competition in the 21 and under category which is so amazing! My story will be published and I’ll be finding out who won at an awards ceremony in November. Even if I don’t win, I’ll still be over the moon that I’ve been shortlisted. I haven’t had anything published or won any writing competitions since I was 16 and it’s just so great to get back into it and for my work to still be doing well!

Anyway, enough about me. Here are the posts from this week:

• It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #1
• Waiting On Wednesday: Scythe by Neal Shusterman
• Review: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

This week, I finished Six of Crows and I adored it, especially Nina, one of my favourite characters I’ve come across in a while, and the Peaky Blinders feel to Kaz and the criminal underworld.

Now I’m onto my books for the Halloween Read-A-Thon and I just started I Am Legend today. I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s quite different from the film, but I expected that. There’s something more sinister about the zombie-ish vampires in the book, which I didn’t quite think was possible.

After that, I’m onto my second book of the Halloween Read-A-Thon, which is YA psychological horror The Dead House. I’ve heard mostly good things about it so fingers crossed!

In terms of my blog, I’m having a bit of writers block with my posts, I think because I’ve just been worrying about my career path. Hopefully I’ll be able to overcome that soon so bear with me!

This week, one of my favourite bands Kings of Leon released their 7th album and I’m loving it. They’ve definitely gone back to their roots here, which is great because I really love their earlier stuff before they got big, especially Because of the Times. However, they still have that polished, anthemic quality of their later work, so there’s something for everyone here in WALLS. The main single ‘Waste A Moment’ is of course great, but I’m really loving songs like ‘Find Me’, ‘Over’, ‘Eyes On You’ and ‘Wild’. Basically, I just love the whole album. Check it out below:

Halloween Read-A-Thon

Hello and welcome to my TBR for Lauren @ Wonderless Reviews‘ Halloween Read-A-Thon! I am super excited to join in with this because I love all things horror and Halloween. If you want to find out more about this challenge, then check out the announcement post.

However, I will only be partaking in two of the challenges because:

1. I only have two horror books at the moment in my TBR and I can’t afford more because I am a poor graduate with student debt.
2. Halloween is my Dad’s birthday and I don’t think he’d appreciate it if I ignored him because of books, so I’m not going to overload myself with challenges.

Anyway, here are the two challenges I’m taking part in and the books I’ll be reading:

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth… but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are hungry for Neville’s blood.

By day he is the hunter, stalking the undead through the ruins of civilisation. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn.

How long can one man survive like this?

This one is pretty obvious, right? Look at that cover. It’s terrifying. I actually got this book as part of my subscription with The Willoughby Book Club and it was such a great choice from them because I love the film adaptation with Will Smith and I’ve been eager to read the book. Now I’m finally getting round to it! Time to find out just how horrifying this book really is…

Twenty-five years ago, Elmbridge High School burned down. The blaze killed three and injured twenty, and one pupil, Carly Johnson, disappeared. For two decades, little was revealed about what became known as the Johnson Incident.

Until now.

A diary has been found in the ruins of the school. In this diary, Kaitlyn Johnson, Carly’s twin, tells of the strange and disturbing sequence of events leading to the incident.

But Kaitlyn doesn’t exist. She never has.

I wasn’t too sure whether to include this book in the ‘Urban Legends’ category or the ‘Haunted House’ category. I couldn’t find out whether this book is a psychological horror or paranormal horror. However, I think that’s the whole point of the book. So, I’m including it in the ‘Urban Legends’ category because I think it falls more into that one.

I got this book at YALC and was lucky enough to get Dawn Kurtagich to sign it which was pretty exciting. I’m really excited to get started with this one as I’ve heard it’s very creepy.

So, there you have it, my Halloween Read-A-Thon TBR! Have you read any of these books? Are you participating in the Read-A-Thon? Let me know in the comments below! And thanks to Lauren for organising this!