The Bone Mother has been on my shelf for a few months and I picked it up this week to go ahead and read. It's got dark folklore, Ukranian/Romanian creepiness, and an overall vibe that can be a little unsettling. That's what pulled me into the book initially. But now that I am done reading it, I don't feel one way or another. I don't even feel like I read it and I am left a little empty. This review will be slightly different format than others. So here we go.

What I liked:
-I really enjoyed the overall concept of the book and being introduced to all sorts of creatures and mythological beings and whatnot from another culture
-I think that the drawings and black and white photos that preface each story are haunting and amazing in a way that is similar to Miss Peregrine's for those who have also read or seen those books
-Demchuk writes with such a unique, eerie, and almost poetic style
-The cover of this book is STUNNING and I love every single thing about that!

What I did not like:
-I could not connect to a single story. The stories I found myself wanting to be further engaged ended in 2-3 pages whereas the stories that bored me mercilessly tended to drone on for page after page
-I am unsure why this book had a part one and a part two? They never seemed to fully connect to me and maybe that went over my head, I am not sure. But I find myself trying to make these stories connect to a bigger picture and it shouldn't be that difficult. I should be enjoying and relishing in the stories themselves not trying to make sense of them. (This could just be on me)
-I rarely felt that anything happened. Al the stories just seemed to be a precursor to some bigger, darker story and just did not feel complete to me. Over half the time when the story/chapter ended I found myself thinking, "Hmm, so that's over now...?"
-I simply wanted more. The creatures and mythological beings seemed to be talked around in circles sometimes but I did not get a full sense of them. I know that folklore is a little loosey-goosey and there are lots of ambiguous aspects to them, but these are stories based on folklore and myths... I think Demchuk could have delved a little deeper for fiction's sake.

I am still not sure if I am settling on a 2.5 or a 3, so my star rating will just round up to 3 at this point. I think I am the odd review here in a jumble of 3-5 star ratings. I did almost DNF this book twice even. There are plenty of positive reviews out there to read as well. I am not one to discourage anyone to read a book ever, as we all have our own tastes and fetishes, but this book was just not for me.

Thanks to Chizine Publications for sending copies of this book to the Nightworms to read and review!

Straight up LOLd so many times while going through this one! Retta is hilarious and this was quite a fun book! 4.5 out of 5 stars

I have no words right now. This book made me think. It made me laugh and smile. It scared me in multiple ways. And it brought me to tears. A wonderful book - full thoughts and review soon. FIVE STARS!!!

The Cool Kids is a remarkable coming of age story that follows three young boys in the early 90s as they embark on a journey of friendship and growth akin to The Goonies or Stand By Me. I was instantly hooked while learning more about who our narrator is because of the similarities we share! I am the youngest boy in the family and while I enjoyed watching sports, I never enjoyed playing them no matter how much my dad tried to get me involved. I was never as good as others and I would much rather just pop open a Goosebumps book or something from my parents' shelves: John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Stephen King, or Dean Koontz. I also got called "sister" a bit from my brothers and even some of their friends. So already I was interested to know more about our protagonist and his story.

This book examines all those wonderful adventures we would go on as a child. Sometimes all it took was to walk inside the growth of some overgrown trees and pretend to be on another planet (when in reality I was in my neighbor's back yard). But I think we all went on those fun journeys when we were little, when life didn't get in the way and force us to stop being innocent. Pellegrini does a fantastic job of evoking those memories within ourselves while reading this novella.

I found myself captivated to hear about the "boys" once they grew up and where their lives went. While everyone went on to lead lives that fulfilled them and engaged in relationships and the workforce as we tend to do as we get older, it was obvious that lust for life and flare for adventure dimmed a bit for our main character. But that's life. But the point is to remind ourselves we can still have adventures and good times. And we can ensure that our kids (or our nieces and nephews, our neighbor's kids, etc) stay as young, innocent, and free as long as they can.

An easy 5-star read!

3.5 out of 5 for this one. The story and stories inside were interesting but not enough to make me just rave about the wonders of the creativity or entertainment value of this book. While I am glad that I got to read this and learn some interesting facts, I would not go to my grave regretting that this was not something I experienced. I recommend this only if you don't already have something on your TBR and are just looking to kill some time. Again, the book is interesting but it's almost a little too textbook-y for my tastes when it comes to a book.

I am struggling on where to go with this review. There are two parts of me that finished this book. One part of me is the guy who loves comedy and really enjoys a story of such growth from rags to riches. Tiffany Haddish bounced around in foster care and had a mother with sever mental illness. She couldn't read as a freshman in high school, had a series of bad jobs, had a super abusive marriage, went through a homeless stint sleeping in her car, and somehow she still ended up killing the game, making a name for herself, and making us all laugh. I LOVE that!

What I didn't like? It's hard for me to decide "What part of this book is Tiffany the comedian and what part is Tiffany the person?" Who craps in their ex-boyfriends shoes and sends his entire family, kids and grandparents alike, a scandalous and raunchy video he made while cheating on her? Who spends an entire chapter referring to a handicapped man's "dead baby arm" and drool while simultaneously trying to speak like someone who has a disability? There were so many times I felt uncomfortable and I knew no one even knew what I was listening to. BUT STILL. It just made me so uncomfortable to hear her mock this man's voice for a WHOLE chapter. And if you are the slightest bit overweight, you are just fat and nasty in her eyes.

So... I am going to go with 2.5 stars on this. And I am still not even sure if that is the right rating. She made me bust out laughing SO much in this book; I can't lie about that. But she exposed so many UGLY parts about her as a person that I can't help but just feel bad. I am also one for profanity; I use it a lot, myself! But this book just got a little too trashy at times. A BOOK. I think in a stand-up act or a movie, a lot more of this book would have worked better. But this is a book and it should be polished and not tacky.I also learned that Tucker Max helped her co-write this book. I am not about that at all.

I LOVE her growth and I LOVE how authentic she is. She is totally herself and does NOT care what anyone thinks. I think we can all live our truths more than we do. She does. But the way she presented it works a LOT better in a stand-up act or a movie than in a book. I just can't get past the 'co-written memoir' aspect (with TUCKER MAX no less.....) full of classless and cruel humor in a book.

Oprah is such a positive person and I could feel inspired listening to her read me my credit card bill. She's refreshing, honest, and full of truths and wisdom we could all hear more frequently.

I was feeling this book SO HARD for the first 75% or so. I was sharing in the pain, frustrations, and fears of the main characters. I wanted them to succeed in scaring Courtney maybe even more than they did! But then the cover Mud Monsters are only even me toned like 5 times in the book. The ending of this one is just thrown at us in the last two pages. A little let down with this one as I can see all the potential it could have had! Still gets 3 stars because I still love a rollicking Goosebumps tale!

Kill Hill Carnage was a wild, fun, gory ride of a horror book! I absolutely enjoyed myself the entire time - there was so much fun dialogue, tributes to good 80s campy horror, and the story was just all-in-all one that I thoroughly enjoyed. This story had some fun friendships and relationships - some come with quite the twist, too!

I could not believe how much gore there was - I mean, I love gore, and I love watching movies that have gore. There are very few books I have read that illustrate gore in such an incredible and fun way than this one! It's around every corner! There were some characters I hated to see torn apart while I was rooting for the moment it would happen to others.

I really enjoyed Meyer's ability to tell a story from the past and present and weave it together in such a way that it is not overwhelming or confusing. A lot of times authors get caught up in this entire "Past Meets Present" type of storytelling that they lose so much along the way and when the two stories collide the impact is not as meaningful. Not here!

I am looking forward to reading more from Meyer in the future!! My thanks to Sinister Grin Publishing for providing the Nightworms with review copies of this book.

I've gotta give this one a 3.5 out of 5. While I enjoyed the story and loved all the snakes throughout, the book was just a little too repetitive. Hi, I am Stephano. No, you're Count Olaf. Hi, I am Stephano. No, you're Count Olaf. We must prove it! And over and over this little cycle went throughout the story. I love that we are getting to know Olaf a little bit more and see the extremes to which he will go to get the Baudelaires fortune, but this book seems like it could have just been a few chapters in a book but not the entire book itself. Anyway, on to the next!