First Line Friday (16): Night of the Living Queers: 13 Tales of Terror Delight by Ryan Douglass, Kalynn Bayron, Sara Farizan, Kosoko Jackson, Tara Sim, Rebecca Kim Wells, Trang Thanh Tran, Vanessa Montalban, Em X. Liu, Maya Gittelman ,Ayida Shonibar

 First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

This week for First Line Friday I'm bringing you the first line of  Night of the Living Queers: 13 Tales of Terror Delight by Ryan Douglass, Kalynn Bayron, Sara Farizan, Kosoko Jackson, Tara Sim, Rebecca Kim Wells, Trang Thanh Tran, Vanessa Montalban, Em X. Liu,  Maya Gittelman, and Ayida Shonibar. 

Her grandmother told her once that the sea gets what it wants. If you go against it, it’ll show you who rules.

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Goodreads synopsis

Night of the Living Queers is a YA horror anthology that explores a night when anything is possible exclusively featuring queer authors of color putting fresh spins on classic horror tropes and tales.

No matter its name or occasion, Halloween is more than a Hallmark holiday, it’s a symbol of transformation. NIGHT OF THE LIVING QUEERS is a YA horror anthology that explores how Halloween can be more than just candies and frights, but a night where anything is possible. Each short story will be told through the lens of a different BIPOC teen and the Halloween night that changes their lives forever. Creative, creepy, and queer, this collection will bring fresh terror, heart, and humor to young adult literature.

Contributors include editors Alex Brown and Shelly Page, Kalynn Bayron, Ryan Douglass, Sara Farizan, Maya Gittelman, Kosoko Jackson, Em Liu, Vanessa Montalban, Ayida Shonibar, Tara Sim, Trang Thanh Tran, and Rebecca Kim Wells.

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Add Night of the Living Queers to your Goodreads TBR and look out for its release on August 29, 2023!

Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding

Title: Speak of the Devil

Author: Rose Wilding

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Publication date: June 13, 2023

A group of women are connected by their hatred for one man. On New Years Eve, 1999, they gather in a hotel for an emergency meeting. In the center of the hotel room, sits Jamie's head. The man they all have a reason to hate has been beheaded, and nobody knows which one of them is the one who swung the axe.

Told in the alternating POVs of all the women who had their own motives for murder, plus the detective trying to put the pieces together, this is a very character driven novel. Because there are so many POVs to keep track of, it took me a second to get each character straight, but as more of the story unravels it becomes easier to keep each character separate.

I liked all the characters, which actually came as a surprise to me because usually when I read books with multiple POVs, there usually one that seems to drag for me, but that didn't happen at all for me here.

The only gripe I had is that the ending felt very abrupt. After finding out everything that Jamie did to each of the women, the killer is revealed right after and the story is wrapped up, I want to say within about ten pages. I didn't feel like their were any breadcrumbs or any sort of build up to the reveal. The abrupt ending was a little bit disappointing.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel. It reminded me a little of Rachel Kapelke-Dale's writing, so if you enjoyed The Ballerinas or The Ingenue, or if you're looking for a fast paced, character driven thriller, I would give this one a try.

First Line Friday (15): Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

This week for First Line Friday I'm bringing you the first line of Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah.

The land had always been parched but its thirst for blood was learned.

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Goodreads Synopsis

Andrea Hannah's Where Darkness Blooms is a supernatural thriller about an eerie town where the sunflowers whisper secrets and the land hungers for blood.

The town of Bishop is known for exactly two things: recurring windstorms and an endless field of sunflowers that stretches farther than the eye can see. And women—missing women. So when three more women disappear one stormy night, no one in Bishop is surprised. The case is closed and their daughters are left in their dusty shared house with the shattered pieces of their lives. Until the wind kicks up a terrible secret at their mothers’ much-delayed memorial.

With secrets come the lies each of the girls is forced to confront. After caring for the other girls, Delilah would like to move on with her boyfriend, Bennett, but she can’t bear his touch. Whitney has already lost both her mother and her girlfriend, Eleanor, and now her only solace is an old weathervane that seems to whisper to her. Jude, Whitney's twin sister, would rather ignore it all, but the wind kicks up her secret too: the summer fling she had with Delilah's boyfriend. And more than anything, Bo wants answers and she wants them now. Something happened to their mothers and the townsfolk know what it was. She’s sure of it.

Bishop has always been a strange town. But what the girls don’t know is that Bishop was founded on blood—and now it craves theirs.

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Add Where Darkness Blooms to your Goodreads TBR and look out for it's release on February 21, 2023

Quick Review: The Ingenue by Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Title: The Ingenue

Author: Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Publication date: December 6, 2022

Goodreads Synopsis

My Dark Vanessa meets The Queen's Gambit in this new novel of suspense about the bonds of family, the limits of talent, the risks of ambition, and the rewards of revenge.

When former piano prodigy Saskia Kreis returns home to Milwaukee after her mother's unexpected death, she expects to inherit the family estate, the Elf House. But with the discovery that her mother's will bequeathed the Elf House to a man that Saskia shares a complicated history with, she is forced to reexamine her own past--and the romantic relationship that changed the course of her life--for answers. Can she find a way to claim her heritage while keeping her secrets buried, or will the fallout from digging too deep destroy her?

Set against a post #MeToo landscape, The Ingenue delves into mother-daughter relationships, the expectations of talent, the stories we tell ourselves, and what happens when the things that once made you special are taken from you. Moving between Saskia's childhood and the present day, this dark, contemporary fairy tale pulses with desire, longing, and uncertainty, as it builds to its spectacular, shocking climax.

Quick Thoughts

I really enjoyed this novel. For the second time, Kapelke-Dale has delivered a wonderfully haunting contemporary story that I couldn't get enough of. I loved reading the way Saskia's story unfolded both in her present life, and the way she's still intertwined with her past, like all of us are, even if she's tried to shake it. 

It took a little while for the story to get going and really hook me, but just like in Kapelke-Dale's previous novel, The Ballerinas, the story unfolded like a movie in my head, and I was invested from the start all the way to the climax. 

Overall, I am so glad that I got the chance to read Ingenue and I just know I will be eagerly awaiting the author's next work.

The Rumor Game by Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra

Title: The Rumor Game

Authors: Dhonielle Clayton & Sona Charaipotra

Publisher: Disney Publishing Worldwide

Expected publication date: March 1, 2022

*Review copy received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

 Introduction

Bryn, Georgie and Cora are three high school seniors about to find out just how quick rumors spread and spiral out of control, especially in the age of social media.

Bryn made a mistake last summer, and she wants her old life back. It's hard to find her footing again.

Georgie lost weight, and she wants to try on a new personality like she's been trying on new clothes.

Cora thought she had a great relationship, and a great boyfriend, but as rumors fly, is she sure?

Through the good and bad, someone is spreading rumors online about all three of the girls, but who exactly is behind it? Can they figure it out and stop it before all of the girls settle into infamy?

Writing and Characters

I liked all three of the girls and I loved that the authors chose to switch POVs between all three of the girls to make sure that we got a clear view of the interweaving storylines and the rumors surrounding them.

Plot/Pacing

This book moved at a great pace, and there were lots of distinct plot points hit across the way. Also, the authors were great at choosing when to switch POVs so that one side of the story never ran dry.

Social Media/Mixed Media Aspect

I adore when books include other media as storytelling devices. With this book being so social media-centric, the use of screenshots. comments, posts, and emails was extremely effective and made me feel even more immersed in the story than I already would have been.

Themes

There are mature themes in this book, including that of sexual assault, so if that is triggering for you, this novel may not be for you.

Mystery-ish aspect

The discovery of who was feeding the rumor mill new ideas was well done. I didn't figure out who is was absurdly early  and everything was tied up and answered by the last page, so I was satisfied.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this book! I think if you are a fan of books such as One Of Us Is Lying or Revenge of the Sluts by Natalie Walton, I think you would definitely be a fan of this one. Look out for it's release on March 1, 2022 and add it to your  Goodreads TBR here!

Dead Girls Can't Tell Secrets by Chelsea Ichaso

Title: Dead Girls Can't Tell Secrets

Original title: The Dark Way Down

Author: Chelsea Ichaso

Expected publication date: April 5, 2022

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Pages: 204

Goodreads synopsis

Piper's fall was no accident. Did someone want her dead? It's up to her sister to discover the truth in this shocking new thriller with an unreliable narrator, from the acclaimed author of Little Creeping Things.

Piper Sullivan was in a strange hiking accident last month and has been in a coma ever since. Her older sister, Savannah, can't pretend to be optimistic about it; things look bad. Piper will likely never wake up, and Savannah will never get any answers about what exactly happened.

But then Savannah finds a note in Piper's locker, inviting Piper to a meeting of their school's wilderness club...at the very place and on the very day that she fell. Which means there was a chance that Piper wasn't alone. Someone might've seen something. Worse, someone might've done something. But who would want to hurt the perfect Piper Sullivan...and why?

To discover the truth, Savannah joins the club on their weekend-long camping trip on the same mountain where her sister fell. But she better be careful; everyone in the club is a suspect, and everyone seems to be keeping secrets about that tragic day.

And Savannah? She's been keeping secrets, too...

Quick thoughts

I had a hard time getting all the way through this book. I was looking forward to a twisty thriller like the synopsis seems to have promised but overall the plot and pacing fell flat for me. 

However, most of my lack of enthusiasm comes from not being overly interested in any of the characters, especially Piper and Savannah. Piper was painted as the typical smart and all around perfect little student, which we've all read probably an uncountable amount of times, and she seemed to lack an actual personality beyond that, even in the flashback style chapters. As for Savannah, most of the time she came off as obnoxious to me, and it's hard to believe that she would even be able to convince anybody to want to be her friend, much less help her figure out what happened to Piper on the night of her incident. I understand that she's supposed to be an unreliable narrator, which I usually love to read, but overall I don't think her voice or general tone was a great fit for the story. 

Overall this was not the right book for me, but if you're looking for a quick thriller it might be a good fit for you.

A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers That Used Them by Neil Bradbury

Title: A Taste For Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them

Author: Neil Bradbury, phD

Expected publication date: February 1, 2022

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Pages: 304

Goodreads synopsis

A brilliant blend of science and crime, A TASTE FOR POISON reveals how eleven notorious poisons affect the body--through the murders in which they were used.

As any reader of murder mysteries can tell you, poison is one of the most enduring—and popular—weapons of choice for a scheming murderer. It can be slipped into a drink, smeared onto the tip of an arrow or the handle of a door, even filtered through the air we breathe. But how exactly do these poisons work to break our bodies down, and what can we learn from the damage they inflict?

In a fascinating blend of popular science, medical history, and true crime, Dr. Neil Bradbury explores this most morbidly captivating method of murder from a cellular level. Alongside real-life accounts of murderers and their crimes—some notorious, some forgotten, some still unsolved—are the equally compelling stories of the poisons involved: eleven molecules of death that work their way through the human body and, paradoxically, illuminate the way in which our bodies function.

Drawn from historical records and current news headlines, A Taste for Poison weaves together the tales of spurned lovers, shady scientists, medical professionals and political assassins to show how the precise systems of the body can be impaired to lethal effect through the use of poison. From the deadly origins of the gin & tonic cocktail to the arsenic-laced wallpaper in Napoleon’s bedroom, A Taste for Poison leads readers on a riveting tour of the intricate, complex systems that keep us alive—or don’t.

Quick thoughts

This book is extremely informative and very interesting. I don't delve into science-y non-fiction or the true crime genre that often but I'm glad I did with this one, as the author blends the genres together brilliantly and I was engrossed the whole way through. I think it's a great novel for those who are just looking to start dipping there toes into non-fiction/true crime, just as I am.