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The Ritual

Adam L.G. Nevill

DID NOT FINISH: 4%

will probably return to it - just wasn’t feeling it! 

Confessions

Kanae Minato

DID NOT FINISH: 13%

noooooot my tone. didn’t enjoy 

The Paleontologist

Luke Dumas

DID NOT FINISH: 6%

twenty pages in and wasn’t vibing honestly
adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Excellent visitation and investigation of an old, old mystery. However, falls victim to nonfiction syndrome, and gets a little lost in the details sometimes. 
adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

I’m a sucker for horror anthologies, and this one was very unique. Definitely a must if you’re looking to diversify your reads. 
slow-paced

I cannot emphasize enough not only how bad this book is, but also how deeply dangerous this rhetoric is. It was authored by an effectively disgraced genetic scientist, who was blacklisted because of poorly researched opinions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as vaccination, and who appeared to fall down a far alt-right pipeline.

Within the first 10 pages of the book, it becomes apparent that you did not pick up an intelligent book on propaganda - you picked up a rambling manifesto written by a man who desperately wants to clear his name, but cannot distance himself from conspiracy theories (all of which point at those who are not uber-conservative as the aggressor).

I waded through 367 pages of willfully misinterpreted research, sources, and statements from the United States government, private companies, and non-governmental organizations, all of which are largely reputable, and instead had to listen to facts backed by the Daily Mail, the Epoch Times, and Dr. Malone’s own website. Dr. Malone inexpertly uses the propaganda techniques he so helpfully places in front of you as a reader, hoping to pull you down the rabbit hole of JFK assassination conspiracy theories, scam phone calls from Romanian citizens saying that you’re being spied upon, and a conglomerate of world powers that have “banded together” to create a Unitarian, new-world government. It is fear-mongering, and not even fear-mongering done particularly well. 

To be quite frank: it is slop. It is garbage. It is not worth reading, even if you’re curious to see where the ramblings of somebody who seemed so intelligent will take you. Dr. Malone doesn’t have a grasp of international relations, the government, or reality. Keep this off your shelf, and save yourself some time. I wish I hadn’t read this, for the sake of my own sanity. 
challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Coldbrook

Tim Lebbon

DID NOT FINISH: 13%

Interesting first 40 pages; fucking DRAG after that. 
dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

man what the FUCK

Cold Storage

David Koepp

DID NOT FINISH: 62%

Just lost me conceptually at a certain point