jussygillis's Reviews (761)

This was ... fine. 
I think I struggled with the audio, but at the same time I can appreciate it and really know that I would enjoy this as the play it is meant to be.

Winter Counts by David Husk Wanbli Weiden

QUICK SUMMARY
Local enforcer, Virgil Wounded Horse from the Rosebud Indian Reserve in South Dakota does the work the legal system fails to do for his people. Heroin makes its way onto the reservation and into the nephew of Virgil, this makes it personal. With the help of his ex girlfriend they set out to learn where and who the drugs are coming from and how to make them stop.


FINAL THOUGHTS
I've been sitting here trying to decide what to say in response to this book. It almost seems surreal, but in reality this is some issues that Reservations face today. I loved the characters and the storytelling. 

“Go from here, while you still have the chance. Before a fate worse than mine, worse than death, befalls you.” 

Daughters of Block Island 
By Christa Carmen


QUICK SUMMARY 🖊️ 
Take this twist on a gothic novel where two sisters who never knew one another are bound my their families secrets. Blake arrives to Block Island to find her birth mother and search for answers. 
Thalia returns after she receives a letter under strange circumstances. 


FINAL THOUGHTS 💭 
 Look at me reading my first ever Amazon First Reads, but what a great book to kick that off. 
I am a sucker for gothic novels, and this one, although a different spin, is no different. There’s just something beautiful in the way gothics are written that have me pulled in from the beginning. 

Thought was good, execution was not.

Grasshands
by Kyle Winkler

QUICK SUMMARY
Overworked assistant Sylvia finds strange moss growing all over the library books, there's not much worry. But on a dare a teenager eats some moss and gains direct knowledge of the book. But they lose themselves in the process. On top of the moss Sylvia has other issues, her best friend is turning into a giant and a horrific creature from her childhood comes back to haunt her.


FINAL THOUGHTS
Kyle does it again, horror and weird fairytale combined to make this an adventure. Every turn I made I was brought deep into this mind fuckery, and I mean that with all the love in the world. This is a book you won't be able to put down.

Thank goodness for the modern langue on the opposite page. Shakespeare speak is not my strong suit.

Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes

QUICK SUMMARY
William Day should be a known Arctic explorer, but after a failed expedition where their only means of survival was eating the dead, he is a disgrace.

Thirteen years Larter he is given a second chance when his second in command, Stevens, has gone missing in the same waters they were stranded in thirteen years earlier. Day is given the chance to restore the tarnished reputation by bringing Stevens back home.


FINAL THOUGHTS
Slooooooow burn gothic horror novel. Need I say more?
But seriously, I had heard a lot of conflicting reviews on this book, but I'm a sucker for slow burn horror and gothic novels. I was not disappointed. 

What I was disappointed in was the lack of chapter division, very long chapters but each one had multiple time line shifts which could have easily been multiple chapters within the one big chapter.

Relinquished
The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood
by Gretchen Sisson


QUICK SUMMARY
Relinquished reveals adoption to be more of a path forced tot take when abortion is inaccessible or for whom parenthood is untenable. You'll read stories from relinquishing mothers about the Americans (not so) shocking refusal to care for families at the most basic level. The stories really give an insight on the impact adoption has on everyone involved.

FINAL THOUGHTS
When you think about adoption, what's the first thing that comes to mind.?

This book was shocking and heart breaking, I could only handle so much at a time because there is a lot of information to take in and at the end of each chapter you hear stories from mothers and sometimes you can't help but sit there with your thoughts. This book just shows how much of a way America has to go to provide the basic care to families, and how their hands are forced when it comes to adoption in quite a few cases. Highly recommend this book.

The Woods All Black
by Lee Mandelo

QUICK SUMMARY
Set in 1920s Appalachia. We have genre combining historical horror, trans-romance with bloody revenge thrown in.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I would have loved this one, if it was longer. I wanted more of the fantastical horror that the book eluded to instead the story was almost over before we had gotten anywhere with it. This could have easily been more fleshed out and I would have devoured the whole thing and probably would have been closer to a 5 star rating. I loved what the story did have and the characters that the author presented us with but it was lacking more meat on the bones.

The Night Wanderer
by Drew Hayden Taylor

QUICK SUMMARY
Sixteen year old Tiffany only has one good thing going for her, that's her new boyfriend. Her mother left, she finds out her father is renting out her room to this stranger from France.

But soon everything starts going even more wrong, and the stranger from France is even stranger than she could have imagined.

FINAL THOUGHTS
This book is so very obviously YA. But I loved it none the less. Cringey white teenage boyfriend, a girl who has never learned much of her history despite her grandmother being one of the last people on their reservation who still speaks their language. 
What I loved even more is the backstory of the stranger from France, his story brings everything together for me. Past, Present and hopefully for Tiffany, future.