howlinglibraries's Reviews (1.85k)

#1 The Lightning Thief ★★★★☆
#2 The Sea of Monsters ★★★★☆
#3 The Titan’s Curse ★★★★☆
#4 The Battle of the Labyrinth ★★★★★
#5 The Last Olympian ★★★★★

Wow, I can't believe this series is over! I thought it was an amazing close to this part of Percy's adventure but I'm also SO HAPPY that I have another series to look forward to with these characters (and some new ones, I'm sure). ♥ RTC!

Buddy read with Sylwia!

Witchcraft Cocktails starts off as any good witchy cookbook should, by regaling the reader with the history of how these ingredients relate to our craft and the purposes they can serve; in this case, a quick glimpse at the history of ancient witches utilizing spirits in their craft and a short explanation of why alcohol can be such a valuable part of spellwork. It then launches into a chapter of definitions and correlations that I thought were so interesting (such as using rum for neutralizing negativity), so this book really lays down a solid guideline before getting down to the recipes. Also, the tip about using moon water for your ice cubes to imbue lunar magic into your drinks? Brilliant. This is the kind of stuff I'm here for.

Side note: the aforementioned basics chapter also describes many bartending techniques that have nothing to do with magic, such as how to express a peel, double straining, etc. — which leads me to believe even non-witches could learn a lot from this one!

Then, the author moves on to more craft-specific needs, such as attuning drinks to astrological bodies during retrogrades, and even basic information that I think will be especially helpful for new witches — quick notes on astrological phases, sabbats, and more.While this section doesn't attribute strictly to the drink recipes, the author explains that it's good information to know as you can attune specific spellwork types to certain times of year.

Finally, we get to the recipe section of the book, where the author's attention to detail continues by kicking off with recipes for bitters, simple syrups, and more. Most (though not all) of the recipes come with pictures, and each one is absolutely gorgeous! My favorite part, aside from how freaking delicious these drinks sound, is the "advanced magic" section at the bottom of each recipe, where advice is given for a tarot card or crystal pairing.

As far as the drink recipes themselves go, these were right up my alley for the most part. There are a lot of fairly sweet cocktails here, but I think even people who don't enjoy sweet drinks will find plenty to love. As someone who doesn't drink very often, I especially appreciated how many of these drinks could very easily be made alcohol-free (like The Prosperous Pumpkin, which I can't wait to try out this fall).

Overall, I think this is an absolutely fantastic recipe book that will be a great addition to the shelf of any alcohol-drinking witch, and even many non-witches. The recipes are well-crafted (which makes sense after learning the author is a long-practicing bartender!) and unique, the information on magic is informative yet brief and intriguing, and the layout of the whole thing is stunning. I definitely plan on picking up a finished copy for my shelf.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

"Let me guess: Everyone lives happily ever after. Again."

I know everyone has already raved about this, but let me go ahead and chime in: I loved this SO much. I enjoy a good fluffy rom-com as much as any other romance reader, but the true key to my heart? A slow-burning, angsty romance with legitimate obstacles and flawed humans doing their best to muddle their way through, and that's exactly what this story gave me.

"Are you worried it's a slippery slope from getting into my car to going down the Slip 'N Slide on my roof and competing in my heavily publicized Jell-O wrestling matches?"

My heart absolutely ached for these two, even when I was literally laughing out loud over their banter (which feels like Emily Henry just sat down and recorded an actual couple flirting and picking at each other — it's so authentic). There are just so many layers to the people in this story and I enjoyed every single moment of it.

"I'm a very tall five-four, actually," I said. He narrowed his eyes and shook his head at me. "You're as small as you are ridiculous."

Even the most minor side characters felt fleshed out and truly important (including The Other Woman, in a turn of events I couldn't have predicted but appreciated endlessly), but the star of the show for me was January herself, who has to be one of the most lovable romance narrators I've ever read. Her insecurities feel reasonable and relatable, yet her passion for life and others never fails, even when she can't always see it in herself.

He never looked away from any of it. Maybe he thought someone had to bear witness to the dark, or maybe he hoped that if he stared into the pitch-black long enough, his eyes would adjust and he'd see answers hiding in it.

Not to mention, Gus is a tremendously lovable hero, especially once we see behind the walls he holds up and realize why he is the way he is. No spoilers but, the brief speech he gives near the end about how he behaved in college, and what his life was really like at that time? It broke my heart. He's such a grumpy, misunderstood softy (my #1 favorite love interest archetype) and I adored him.

"That's what you do. For your readers. For me. You make beautiful things, because you love the world, and maybe the world doesn't always look how it does in your books, but... I think putting them out there, that changes the world a little bit. And the world can't afford to lose that."

Most of all, though, watching January and Augustus learn to live their lives and be as happy as they could be, in each moment, despite everything? I needed that right now. Emily Henry, thank you so much for putting this beautiful story out into the world. I can't wait to reread it over and over again.

✨ Content warnings for:

Spoiler

grieving lost parents, discussions of cancer & treatments, references to parental abuse, descriptions of cults, vague reference to infant death, mentions of infidelity, mentions of divorce

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to Berkley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I’ve loved the horror genre for a very long time, and one constant in that love has been my relentless affection for haunted house stories. More than any other horror theme in the industry, I think, I am a sucker for a spooky, old farmhouse with bumps in the night, ghosts in the attic, and handprints on the window panes. I was immediately intrigued when I first came across the synopsis for this book, and I am pleased to report that it did not disappoint in any way.

Most dwellings are as ephemeral as their inhabitants. Most homes are as characterless as a harvested cornfield, with its mud and discard stalks.
But not the Alexander house.

Right off the bat, Janz’s writing is spectacular at setting the mood; I was only a couple of chapters in when I told a friend that I already knew I was going to love this book, because “something about his writing just unsettles me,” and wow, did I hit that one on the nose early. The atmosphere is fantastic from start to finish, and I constantly felt like I was right there in the Alexander house with David. Luckily, the scenery isn’t the only thing Janz immerses you in—there’s legitimate terror between these pages, and I adored every damn second of it.

This would be a good time to tell you that I do not rattle easily when it comes to horror books or films. I’ve been a lover of the genre since I was five years old, and at this point, it’s just not common for stories to get under my skin. That said, there’s a scene in this book that I was reading alone at night, while everyone else was sleeping, and I literally put the book down in the middle of the chapter and went to bed. I know horror is subjective, and maybe Janz’s descriptions just push my buttons just right, but I can’t remember the last time I noped out of a book like that.

“Homes have personalities, don’t they? Some are sullen, some are cheerful. This one—” he nodded, “—is less predictable.”

Of course, the book isn’t all spooky scenes, but it never drags in the moments in between. I found myself genuinely invested in the mystery surrounding the region, including the bizarro sex fiend neighbors, the hilariously snarky and no-nonsense sheriff Harkless, and the lovely woman whose motives don’t quite add up.

I rooted for David despite the fact that he’s definitely an “unlikable narrator”—he’s pretentious and skeptical, but it works so well for this story; as a horror fan, you’re left to sit on the sidelines and watch him slowly come to terms with what is happening, and there’s almost a sick sort of satisfaction in the moment he begins to truly realize he can’t explain everything away with science and logic. Despite the shortcomings that led to his former love’s suicide, I even caught myself feeling a bit defensive over him when the people of the town tried to accuse him of things.

How ironic would it be, he mused, if David were to go missing and the only record of his stay here was a breathless recording of his weird experience upstairs? He would become an even truer successor to John Weir: another skeptic claimed by the spirits he was attempting to debunk.

There’s not much else I can say about this story without drifting into spoiler territory, so I’ll leave it at this: Jonathan Janz is a fantastic writer who deserves to go far, and I cannot wait for my next opportunity to be terrified by his deliciously twisted storytelling.

Content warnings for suicide, sexual assault, ableism, and child abuse (all addressed/challenged within the text).

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to Flame Tree Press for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

You can find this review and more on my blog, or you can follow me on twitter, bookstagram, or facebook!

Does anyone else have an author (or a few) whose work you’ve never read, yet you just know they’re going to be a perfect fit for you? Kealan Patrick Burke has been right at the top of that list for me. Between how cool his stories sound, how much I love the covers he designs, and what an all-around great guy he strikes me as, I knew that was going to be really sad if I didn’t love his writing.

Halloween provides us with the choice to be scared, or to scare others. It allows us to vicariously slip behind the mask and see the world through the eyes of things that evoke fear in others. It allows us to be scared out of our wits, safe in the knowledge that it isn’t real.

Thankfully, I was worried for nothing, because this Halloween-themed collection of stories is literally flawless. I enjoyed every single story immensely and was so sad when the collection came to an end, because I needed more! Kealan has such a distinctive writing voice and his ideas are so unique and clever, but they’re also incredibly emotional at points, and I love a horror author who can creep me out and make me feel things at the same time.

The collection picks up with Andromeda, where a teen girl is glued to her phone when she begins to receive some very strange messages, just before the world around her becomes very bizarre. Then, the first moment of sadness strikes in Someone to Carve the Pumpkins, when two brothers come across an elderly woman they suspect is a ghost. In Haven, a man finds relief when his mother passes, but returning to his childhood home stirs painful and terrifying memories.

We’re brought back down to a moment of quiet heartache for How the Night Receives Them, in which a young girl wanders a lonely road at night, seeking out the detective whose poetry keeps her company. In Tonight the Moon is Ours, a taste of fantasy enters the mix when a boy’s friends convince him to visit a fairy stone in rural Ireland, their motives filling him with a dread he can’t shake. The Toll shifts to an air that is, unexpectedly, a little bit humorous—the plot of an old businessman finding himself buried alive shouldn’t be funny, but something about his devil-may-care view of the situation made me smile.

The strangest story of the bunch for me was Will You Tell Them I Died Quietly?: a young man’s mother has passed away and he’s agreed to allow a local religious group to host her funeral, despite a life-long feud between the group and his family, but there’s a very peculiar history there, after all. The next-to-last story was a tie for my favorite—in The Tradition, a young woman wakes in a decrepit old house, unsure of how she got there, but as her memories slowly return to her, we’re treated to a surprisingly unsettling moment of body horror mixed with a fantastically immersive atmosphere.

Finally, the collection rounds out with my other favorite: The One Night of the Year. An elderly widower sits on his porch every Halloween night with a bucket of candy, a shotgun, and his dog, waiting to greet the only three visitors he will receive. I can’t say anything about this story without spoiling the ending, but for those of you who know the piece, I’ll say that I found myself choking back tears with the biggest smile on my face.

She wanted a boy, a soul, anyone.
Someone to carve the pumpkins.

On top of the wonderful stories, the end of the collection contains a list of Kealan’s personal recommendations for horror reads and films, and I’ll just say that I recognized a lot of books I love, but the movie list? Flawless. I love almost all of the films he listed, so I’ll be checking out the ones I haven’t seen. I thought it was such a great idea to add in those recommendations, and it really adds a personal touch to the collection.

So, like I said, nothing about this collection disappointed me. This is one of the easiest 5-star ratings I have ever given in a collection or anthology review, and I am so happy to say that I have finally officially joined the ranks of Kealan’s fans. I will eagerly be picking up more work from him as soon as possible, and one hundred percent recommend adding this to your TBR. At right around a hundred pages, Dead Leaves is a quick and immersive read that would be perfect for Halloween night.

Winter came, as harsh as grief. The earth grew icy teeth; the ground froze. And snow fell away endlessly, whispering rapturously of autumn's death.

I know that I always rave about Kealan's writing, so I'm sure it will come as no surprise to any of you that I adored every single page of this collection of wintry short stories, but let me go ahead and make this clear: this is the most flawless writing of Kealan's I've read thus far, and easily my favorite. I know beyond the shadow of any doubt that I will be picking this one up over and over again for rereading in the future, whether it's in the dead of winter (ha, ha) or any other season.

The boy stood in his bedroom, the cold licking his wrists and ankles. He shuddered. His bed stood only a few tantalizing feet away. The window was even closer.
But he couldn't move. Not yet.

This collection is so freaking atmospheric, and I honestly 5-starred every single story. I normally put together a list of favorites for short story collections, but that list would just be all of them in this case. You've got these terrible, dark stories like 'Black Static' and 'Visitation Rights', quiet and slow-moving tragedies like 'The Quiet' and 'They Know', or tales that are simply terrifying, like 'Snowmen'. They're literally all incredible and you can't afford to skip a single one!

The house is always cold. It didn't use to be, but then we used to have a son to warm it.
It's been cold since I killed him.

If you haven't read anything by Kealan yet, I don't know what the hell you're waiting for, but you should definitely do it as soon as humanly possible, because I promise you're missing out on something incredible. I highly recommend Dead of Winter regardless of what season you're in when you've found this review, but especially if you're looking for something to make the chilling bleakness outside just a little more threatening.

#1 Illuminae ★★★★★
#2 Gemina ★★★★★
#3 Obsidio ★★★★★

“Miracles are statistical improbabilities. And fate is an illusion humanity uses to comfort itself in the dark. There are no absolutes in life, save death.”

It's hard enough to break up with the guy you love. It's even worse to have your planet blown up on the same day. Kady and Ezra are forced to seek shelter in a fleet of warships and carrier craft, bound to an agonizingly unlikely escape route from the enemy organization BeiTech, who are determined to leave no survivors. Let's just say that teenage drama and intergalactic warfare make for one hell of an uncomfortable combo.

---

First of all, let me say in advance that I will do my best to avoid spoilers, but it's hard to do with this one, because, HOLY HELL THOSE TWISTS. The first 100 pages or so of this book were a little slow for me - probably because I don't read much sci-fi and had a hard time keeping names and locations straight for a while - but once you get past that 100-page mark, this book is nonstop drama, action, and madness. I won't even bother trying to summarize beyond the sad mini-paragraph you see above, because I genuinely believe the most enjoyable way to read this book would be to go into it knowing as little as possible beforehand.

As far as what I can say: the formatting is incredible. I know I've met some people who preferred the audiobook or ebook adaptations because the formatting wasn't their gig, and I can respect that, but I absolutely adored it and was enthralled by the creativity that went into it. The story is told in alternating segments of military dossiers and debriefings, emails, instant message exchanges, and the very rare third-person narrative from an "analyst" of sorts. This book does not read like a novel whatsoever; it feels like you're right there with the characters, eavesdropping on their conversations like a proverbial fly on the wall. Sections shift focus from one character to another, but unlike most books of differing POVs, we don't just see Kady and Ezra's sides; we also get to experience what many minor side characters go through, as well as the first-person side of an unlikely supporting character whose name will be left unsaid, but who is an utter and complete delight to read from.

The characters are amazing, and lovable, and so endearing in so many ways. Even the characters who we aren't supposed to like, I found myself eagerly awaiting the appearance of because they were just so. Damn. Enjoyable. They feel like real people, flaws and humor and wit and stupid decisions in all, and a few of them brought on some serious mourning when they passed. The heavy spots of loss and action are broken up with the comedic relief from the third party narrating the occasional segment, as well as the witty banter that frequently goes back and forth between friends and colleagues. I think I found myself laughing more than any other reaction to this book, though it certainly drew its fair share of gasps (and maybe a few tears) from me, too. The second half of this book is just INSANE. I couldn't put it down for anything, because it was so action-packed and kept me on the edge of my seat right until the last page.

I was so sad to see the book come to an end, and knew long before I reached the back cover that this would be a five-star review from me. This was my first book by Jay Kristoff or Amie Kaufman, but I will absolutely be picking up more titles by each of them. I'm already 100 pages into the sequel, Gemina, and have no doubt that I'll be giving that book a positive rating, too, because these authors are just a dream duo. There's no feeling of disconnect that I sometimes get from co-authored books; clearly, they found a solid common ground that allowed this beautiful fluidity in their co-writing. I cannot rave enough about this book and would encourage you, if you haven't already, to go get a copy right now - from Amazon, your library, a friend, whatever - and get started, because you won't be sorry.

Holy shit. Holy shit. This series just keeps getting better.

RTC

4.5 stars

I inhaled this book in one sitting after spending weeks slumping, if that tells you anything.

RTC

It's been a while since I read Fangirl, but when I saw this manga adaptation up on NetGalley, I had to check it out. It was the kind of book I've wanted to re-read but been hesitant to do so because I was worried it wouldn't live up to my memory, and I figured a manga was a good way to re-read it without too much commitment. Thankfully, I actually think I like this storyline even better in manga format! Levi's cuteness comes across really well in the art and his expressions, and I feel like there's less of the initial snooty attitude from Reagan - she doesn't really come across as rude in this manga like I remember her being in the novel, just a bit aloof.

Anyways, the art is cute as can be, and I really enjoyed the beginning to this adaptation! I'm excited to read the other volumes when they come out.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!