howlinglibraries's Reviews (1.85k)

 This was definitely my least favorite Grady Hendrix book I've read so far, but it was still a lot of fun. I loved the idea of the book and I was thrown off by some of the red herrings, but I could never quite connect to the main character enough to feel fully invested in the story, and I can't explain why (it's especially odd because I usually ADORE the main characters in Grady's books!). Something was definitely missing here, but like I said, it was still a fun read that I mostly enjoyed. Full review coming soon!
 

 Wow, this was incredible. I was sucked in from the very first page and could not put this novella down! I was so entranced by the setting and plot and characters that all I could do was enjoy the ride, and what a ride it was. This story is full of folklore and culture, but all of that takes a backseat to both the terror within these pages and the beautiful depictions of a mother's love and grief.

In Bound Feet, our narrator is facing down the first anniversary of her daughter's death, and she and her best friend have decided to revisit the Ghost Garden where the little girl drowned to give offerings to her spirit. What begins as a tragic and heartbreaking tale quickly becomes so much more when Jodi's wishes to see her daughter one more time come true, but not in a way she could ever have predicted or hoped for.

The setting of the Ghost Garden is incredible, and Kelsea does a tremendous job of transporting the reader there, but the characters are even better. Jodi is such a sympathetic narrator and it's so easy to feel her grief and loss that I wanted desperately for her to see little Ella again. I was shocked by the terrifying turn of events that took place, especially with the shocking ending that played out. I won't spoil it, but if you've read it, all I'll say is that I don't remember the last time I was so saddened and so pleased by an ending at the same time.

Child loss is my only trigger, but I'm very grateful that I've been able to overcome that trigger in recent months because I would have hated to have missed this wonderful story. Kelsea blew me away with every single page and I'm so beyond excited to read more work from her because this was genuinely one of my favorite horror stories I've read in 2022 and I'm going to be recommending it for a LONG time to come.

Buddy read with Ashley! 💖

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.

✨ Representation: Jodi and Sarah are both Chinese-American and a substantial portion of the story revolves around Chinese ghost lore and culture 

 This was just as cute as the first volume—maybe even cuter! Musubi is so precious and I literally choked on my drink a little from how hard I laughed when he suddenly went into berserker mode! over the treat, especially because I buy my cats those same types of little tube treats and they go absolutely ape for them, too. 😂

Between Musubi's antics and Riko's constant comparisons of everything and everyone to video game components and characters, I seriously can NOT recommend this series enough to fellow cat-loving gamers! 

 I liked the first volume a bit better, but I'm not sure I'll continue the series. The art is so lacking in detail and so dark that I'm not a big fan of it, and I'm really not enjoying the way this is two volumes in a row where we're being given bread crumbs without any explanation for any of it. If anything, the world and "curse" are so much more confusing now than they were in the first volume! I'm sad to say I don't think this is for me.
 

 Damn. I should have waited until the full first volume released, like I usually do with graphic novels. This was just a tiny little taste of the story and I'm already hooked!

✨ Representation: multiple Native American main characters 

 I was so excited to read a gargoyle romance book, but unfortunately, it didn't work out for me as well as I hoped it would. The first half was pretty fun, though a little repetitive, but once the second half hit, both characters started grating on my nerves and it went downhill from there.

I get that Titan is a full-on "Daddy" (which is fine—I might not like the nickname, but I dig the mannerisms), but he reaches a certain point where, despite being respectful of Julianna's needs and consent in the bedroom, he shows no regard whatsoever for her boundaries outside of the bedroom, and it pissed me off. Julianna reacted just as angrily as I expected her to, so that wasn't the problem, but she was so childish about the entire ordeal that it made it difficult to empathize with her, either—leaving me annoyed with both of them.

One of these days, I'll find the gargoyle romance my lifelong Gargoyles-adoring heart deserves, but today wasn't that day. 

 I don't think either of us (my 6-year-old or me) cared as much for this collection of spooky stories as the first book in this series, but it was still a lot of fun and the art was cute!
 

 Oof, that was a rough read at times! I love a good dystopian tale and the idea of a government-mandated cannibalistic society is perhaps one of the most gruesome dystopian themes I've read about (and one of the most appalling, especially with the ways Tender is the Flesh explores that cannibalism leading to dehumanizing people in other, even more awful ways). Full review coming soon! 

 The first half of this was very difficult to care about because there were so many characters (most of them sadly quite one-dimensional), but the second half was an absolute delight. 3.5 stars and I'll post a full review soon!