I had been meaning to give Adam Nevill a try for several years, and his recent interview on Talking Scared gave me added motivation. I went with Cunning Folk for my first because it seemed firmly in my wheelhouse, and the audiobook was available from my library.

I liked it quite a bit; it's a slow-burn folk horror with very timely concerns but an old-fashioned sensibility to the prose. Some won't like the pace, the wordiness, or the evocative descriptions, but I thought they made for a nice break from the breakneck, bare-bones style of faster-paced contemporary horror.

Although Nevill takes his time building to the overtly creepy stuff, he imbues the entire novel with a palpable sense of dread that I found really effective. You know, from the second that you meet the plucky little family of three motoring toward their new life in their dilapidated house that was all they can afford, that something horrible is going to happen to them. And then it does, in ways both expected and unexpected.

Will definitely read more of Nevill's books.

I want to get right out in front of this review and say that the publisher's synopsis buries the lede so, so deep--a backhoe must have been involved--that it's misleading. A Lesson in Thorns is not MF romance, or MMF romance, but six-person, group sex, pagan ritual, polyam, kinky, bisexual, erotica. With a priest.

I pretty quickly realized where this was going, and I almost set the book aside for personal reasons that I will not elaborate upon here. But I kept reading, and I'm glad that I did, because against all odds, I loved it. It's got a setting I adore (big old house adjacent to a quaint village), good atmosphere (mysterious, nerdy, and horny), and not one but two librarian characters (who are actually well-written because the author is a former librarian).

Fun escapism, just dark enough to be interesting, with lots of unanswered questions. Will be reading more.

Sixty-ninth book of the year? Nice.

At this point, I’m long past acting like I read monster smut purely out of morbid curiosity. I read them because they’re fun. And this one was pretty fun.

However, you will get more mileage out of it if breeding kink is your thing.

It says a lot about me that as soon as Ramanu was introduced, I wanted to know if they get a book.

Equal parts "gross" and "good for her."

This is out of character for me, but I liked the sex more than I liked the relationship in this one. Make of that what you will.

Very much enjoying that this is a queer norm world where things like consent and reproductive freedom are seen as givens, unlike our world. Can I make a deal with a demon, please?

I still have a crush on Ramanu.

I'm pretty surprised that I didn't tear through this one as quickly or enjoy it as much as I did TJ Newman's previous two books. I think it was a combination of right book, wrong time (it's been difficult to sustain my interest in anything that's not horror or romance/erotica lately) and the change in setting and scope from Falling and Drowning. There is just so much going on in this book, so many settings and people to mentally juggle, and at times I found it difficult to connect with the characters very deeply, even in highly emotional moments. I also reached a point of fatigue with just how many highly emotional moments there were, as the stakes only keep heightening up to the penultimate chapter. It stressed me out and not in a rollicking good time, oh-the-suspense! kind of way.

However, I really do admire Newman's continued dedication to telling survival and disaster stories that center the importance of community in times of crisis and that highlight the fact that many different types of people, including those you might not expect, possess helpful knowledge, perspectives, and skills. There is never one big tough guy who tells everyone what to do and gets the girl in the end, and that is so refreshing.

2.5 stars? Profoundly goofy and deeply unserious (in ways that have nothing to do with it being a romcom), but mostly enjoyable?

I had a review all typed out but decided it was too snarky, so I might just leave it at that.

Incredibly brief overview of changing depictions of and attitudes toward Satan through history, mostly helpful to me in its discussions of imagined anti-worlds and demonic inversion. Gave me some things to think about in relation to some writing projects I'm doing (which involve life in a Satanic abbey and the various adventures of its intrepid librarian) and a lot of motivation to dig deeper elsewhere.

My favorite type of poetry--straightforward, specific, visual, and tactile--about overlapping losses and griefs. A partner's mothers's death; a divorce; the impending death of a beloved, aging dog: topics that could be saccharine or bogged down by sentimentality, but Liebegott keeps her writing sharp and painful. Great stuff.

2.5 stars rounded up. I want to be very clear that I was not bothered by the

Spoiler

incest

, and it did not influence my rating at all. I was on fanfiction.net from a young age--like Saint and Auden, to my eternal amusement--and I have read some actual books where

Spoiler

incest

played a role since then. No pearls were clutched.

But I do have a problem with how the plot dragged, how everything was so belabored, and for what? It all felt a bit anticlimactic, to be honest. I wanted more from the ritual. I wanted more of the research and the ritual planning!

So now I'm torn about continuing the series. I worry that the other books will also drag like this one. But I also want to get more from Beckett, whom I love and have some questions about.