I wanted to love this book but I just could not get past all of the medical jargon. I do not have a PhD in hematology or anything like that and at times it felt like I was reading a medical textbook. Each chapter that pulled me more into the mysterious story was followed by 2-3 chapters of intense genetics and science lingo. I just wanted more horror and this style kept taking me out of the story completely.

Another issue I had was that if I didn't feel like I was getting a lecture from med school that I felt like I was in a course learning Romanian. It can be difficult to read any book when you have that 'How do I pronounce this?' moment in your head every 15 seconds for page after page.

I am giving this book an extra star because I do acknowledge and appreciate ALL the research that went into creating this book. I really do. It just was NOT for me. Unfortunately I think this book was 100000% more detailed than it needed to be. Fans of the super detail will probably enjoy, but it just had a negative impact on my reading experience.

Of course I would be drawn to this book. I mean... why wouldn't I? A slasher at a Bible summer camp?! Sign me up - for the book, not the camp!

This book has been marketed as YA but I have to fully disagree as it has themes for mature audiences as well as some good gore (not FULL blown gore by any means, but enough to appease any fan of the slasher genre).

This was a quick read and a fun read. But do not for one second think that makes it a light read - there are some heavy scenes and a couple parts that may break your heart. But that's what this book is - a slasher with heart. 4 stars!

4 stars to this wild, gory, hillbilly horror story! Fans of Wrong Turn, The Hills Have Eyes, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies will absolutely devour this one!

My full review is on the Night Worms blog: https://nightworms.com/blogs/news/alexs-review-cannibal-creek-by-jon-athan

"I wiped the corpse's sticky blood and my own sweat from my brow. Taking a step back I cast a critical eye over the finished piece. Not bad for a first attempt, but in reality, it was nowhere near the picture in the textbook."

The opening lines of this novella totally hooked me. And the story turned into this wild and gory descent into madness. 4 stars from me!

My full review is posted on the Night Worms blog: https://nightworms.com/blogs/news/a-side-by-side-review-army-of-skin-by-morgan-tanner

A female serial killer who seduces young boys, sleeps with them, and then murders them to satiate a supernatural being following her around? Yes, please! While this book had some seriously disturbing parts, I think it added to the overall horror and just made the story that much more twisted. The deaths are gory and the sex is intense. Erotic horror? Is that a thing? Maybe it is now!

While our female serial killer, Regina, comes across as the main villain of the story, it is worth saying that Ghost, the supernatural entity cleaning up her bloody messes, is creepy, ambiguous, and truly a great addition to this story. I wish we knew a little bit more about Ghost. But the lack of knowing also made him more eerie and haunting.

4 stars from me and I need more!

"In the house where we lived when Becky and I were in school, my mother's lying on the basement floor of our house, fugly and naked on the red linoleum, with the electric hair clippers jammed up her cooz."

That's a pretty powerful opening sentence for The Bedwetter, a story told in journal-esque format of a young man with a pissy past and a not-so-great present. Our protagonist wet the bed as a child and his mother punished him by shaving his head. He finally felt he could trust someone and she betrayed him by telling the whole school and he endured endless bullying, name calling, and teasing ever since. Now he is an adult who is quite twisted - he started wetting the bed again, he fantasizes about shaving women, and he is visited by The Piss Fairy in his dreams.

What I enjoyed most about this book is how the author really lets you see what a psychopath our main character is. And since we get to read it from his POV we can see just how highly and mighty he thinks of himself, too. Nothing is his fault and everything else can either be explained away or blamed on someone else. This is the guy that weirds you out and annoys you. And this is the guy that you don't want to be friends with. And, in the end, it's all for good reason.

3.5 stars for this one and I thank the author for the review copy! I can almost see more books with this protagonist from how it ended and now that he has "found himself" and fulfilled the dark desires of The Piss Fairy.

Trigger warnings: misogyny, homophobia, and animal cruelty.

As brutal and twisted and messed up and psychotic as this book is... I gotta give it 5 stars! The most effed up book I've ever read. Full review to come!

I absolutely LOVED Little Darlings! Everything about this is the perfect blend of domestic thriller and dark folklore. I never would have imagined putting the two genres together to craft a story, but I am so glad that Melanie Golding did. Now I know this is a possibility and I am eager for more like it.

This book is fast-paced and is full of suspense, creep factors, eerie vibes, and loaded with all the things that make a domestic noir/thriller so good! In this story you will see homages to The Yellow Wallpaper, The Changeling, and contains overall Brothers Grimm vibes. It was practically unputdownable!

I loved how the ending is slightly ambiguous and the readers are left to determined for themselves what they choose to believe happened. I am so glad I won this book in a giveaway and I highly recommend it! 5 stars!

I knew this book would be a heartbreaker. I just knew it. But sometimes that is just the kind of book I need and it is better to know I would rather prepare myself to be crushed than have it just sprung upon me. I have heard this book is polarizing within the CF community for its accurate/inaccurate portrayal of living with CF and those impacted. I feel that the psychological aspect and a lot of the emotions of the main characters are more accurate than some of the medicine that was presented. But I think some of the medical extravaganza the author added was to increase the dramatic appeal of the book. My mother used to work with CF patients and families for years and I think it is a disease that a lot of people still don't know a lot about or a disease that many people have not seen represented in TV, movies, books, etc. Was this book a little cliche and did it over-romanticize a disease? Yes. But I went into this YA Romance novel expecting that. It's a little bit of Everything, Everything and a tad bit The Fault In Our Stars without quite reaching the same levels. In the end I am giving it 3.5 stars because the book did what I wanted it to: it made me smile and pulled on my heartstrings.

I love books with this format: journal entries, letters, reports, etc. I am not sure what it is, but I just get lost in a story told to me like this! Second of all, I love the Lovecraftian vibes going on throughout this book where our main character has these surreal dreams of massive gods and giant, vibrant locales. The old gods are here! And when the gods come you can rest assured to see plenty of blood and gore and body parts here and there. And the descriptions? The descriptions are ON POINT! The story ends with a slight indication there might be a sequel (or maybe even this is the start of a series??) and I am definitely looking forward to that if it works out that way.

4 stars! If you are into Lovecraftian stories and cosmic horror then you will definitely enjoy this one! And a bonus: fans of great artwork in stories will also be pleasantly surprised!