kirby2002's reviews
1115 reviews

I couldn't get into this. There was way too much world-building and not enough story. I heard it picks up about halfway through, but I couldn't make it that far.

What did I just read???? I honestly have no words for this book. It was one of the weirdest (and not in a good way) books I’ve ever read. Many people I follow loved it, and I am questioning if I read the same book. There are three main POV’s in this. Ted, the main character, is a weird man who does weird things and eats weird food. He also clearly has some mental illness. There is Dee, whose sister went missing, and she is convinced Ted had something to do with it. And then there is Olivia, who is Ted’s cat. That’s right, a decent amount of this book is told from a cat’s POV. I did not like the big twist with Ted, Olivia, and Lauren. I felt like it was too much. I also HATED the twist with Dee. I get blocking out bad childhood memories, but this was too much. This was an original story, and it was well written, but it's not for me. 

Stars: 2⭐️⭐️
Spice: 0
Eyeroll: 3⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Horror
Series: No 
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Christopher Raglan
Narrator Rating: 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cliffhanger: No

Rambling Thoughts:
This whole story felt more like a setup for Alec's eventual confrontations with Mr. Scary and the Midnight Cabal. Everything comes way too quickly to Alec and his Scooby gang.

Just some examples 1. He gets lost in a Shadow Realm he has never heard of. He figures out how to get out right away. While there, he sees Mr. Scary. 2. He looks for The Lady of the Forest's crown and walks into the first bar he sees. He told the local legends there, and of course, it's the place he is looking for. When he arrives, he talks to her sister, and she gives up the crown. No task, no questions, and no hesitation. 3. Felicity's father happens to be researching Egyptian heart curses, and she figures out how to save Mallory. 4. Felicity is tasked to research where the vampires stay in Greece. Now, Greece is 50,942 square miles, and according to Wikipedia, there are approximately 4,394,506 households. Yet Felicity finds the place within minutes. 5. When Alec brings the "remains" of the Lady of the Forest to her sister, The Lady of the Lake, he vows to avenge her death and kill every member of the Cabal. The Lady of the Lake gives him Excalibur. FUCKING EXCALIBUR. He doesn't have to pull it from a stone or do anything heroic. He makes a vow, and she hands it over.

Now I know this is a work of fiction, and not everything will be realistic, but you can make them work for it a little, or maybe not everything goes so smoothly.

Alec and Felicity's relationship has come to a standstill. I believe that's to reignite the love triangle with Mallory (or Deputy Amy) for the future.

Alec is WAY too trusting and honest. He claims to be suspicious of everyone, yet he has no problem telling everyone the truth or his plans within minutes of meeting them. Dude, you can hold some stuff back or maybe lie a little. You're dealing with the Midnight Cabal, and you have no idea who is a member, so perhaps don't tell everyone everything. 

There is finally a sign that Alec is a Harbinger of Death.

After he uses one of his spells, he sees a red circle in his mind. He concentrates on it, and he begins to heal himself. Once he is done, all living creatures around him drop dead

There was the death of someone Alec was supposed to protect. This is the first time he failed, and I am interested to see how he handles it.

There was a pleasant surprise twist, and one of the members of the Cabal was revealed. 

This was the first book in the series with a different character's POV. I get that Felicity is at home in England, but up to now, the series has only been from Alec's POV. I didn't care for it.

I am intrigued by how Alec will handle the Cabal and the big reveal, so I am continuing with the story.

Quick Synopsis
This is the 3rd installment of the Harbinger P.I series. This picks up right after the zombie attack on Main Street. The sheriff comes to Alec to investigate a cold case of the woman who disappeared at the lake. He was also hired (book 2) by his daughter, Deputy Amy, to look into her mother's death at the church massacre. As Alec investigates, he realizes that the two events are connected and has to stop the person behind them before it is too late.

Rambling Thoughts:

The series is improving; I am not rolling my eyes as much. My main issue with the series is how quickly and easily things are solved. There was a zombie attack on Main Street, and it was all cleaned up the following day. Then, everything falls into place once he figures out what is happening.

The love triangle is currently at a standstill. Alec and Felicity are starting to heat up, and Mallory is hunting for Mr. Scary (still the most unoriginal serial killer name ever). I also can see a potential love interest in Deputy Amy.

The creature/monster was original and gross.

I'm enjoying learning more about Alec's powers and their origin. I am still awaiting signs that Alec is the potential Harbinger of Death. I mean, how can he not be? He's part of a secret society. He has powers that were possibly given to him by a coven of ancient witches. His last name is HARBINGER.

I am confused about whether the world knows about preternatural events. I know he advertises as a Preternatural Investigator, but many people seem skeptical. But simultaneously, when he tells people what is happening, they accept it with no issues. If I was walking down the street at night and a bunch of zombies were around, I would freak the fuck out. I mean ZOMBIES. But the next day, the town returns to normal as if nothing happened.

Overall, this is a quick and enjoyable read, and I will continue with the series.

 I will forever hold a special place in my heart for Stephen King. I did a High School paper on The Shining, and it brought back my love of reading. But the more I read of his, the more I realize I don’t like his books. He is a fantastic writer who creates the most unique and interesting stories but gets bogged down in detail and world-building. I’d say I like 1 out of every 5. As much as I don’t like some of his books, I will continue to try to read everything. Because when they are good, oh man, they are fucking fantastic.

When researching what horror novels to read for spooky season, I found this book on multiple lists of best horror novels. I was intrigued and when I saw that Michael C. Hall narrated it, I was in. I did not find this scary at all. First off, we all know the story: his cat gets killed, and he finds out that if he buries it at the Pet Sematary, it will come back to life. Of course, it doesn’t come back quite the same. It’s basically a zombie cat minus the eating of brains. Then, in a tragic accident, his son is killed by a semi-truck. Louis gets it in his head that if he buries his son there, he will be OK, and what happened to the cat won’t happen to his son. But of course, that’s not the case, and the kid goes on a murder spree. I listened to this book, which is over 15 hours long, on the longer side of audiobooks. His son doesn’t get killed until about 12 hours in. That is 12 hours of world-building and backstory before the “scary” stuff is about to happen. Then, once the “scary” starts, it feels super rushed. It all happened in the last 3 hours of the book, and it wasn’t that scary. Was it creepy? Yes. Did I have to stop listening because I was scared? No.

I would have enjoyed this more if a good chunk had been cut out and if I had gone into it thinking it was a thriller. I enjoyed the majority of the first 12 hours, but I kept waiting for the kid to die and for me to start shitting my pants. That never happened, so I am disappointed.

Stars: 3⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: .5 🌶️
Eyeroll: 1⭐️
Genre: Horror
Series: No
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Michael C. Hall
Narrator Rating: 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cliffhanger: No 

Four horror novellas, all involving books.

In The Skin of Her Teeth- An editor is waiting for the script of a movie from an acclaimed writer. The story is an adaptation of a famous novel. After several unanswered calls and the due date approaching, she drives upstate to the writer's home to see what is happening. When she gets there, she is shocked by his behavior and accusations. 

The Dark Brothers’- Two brothers are gophers for a local crime boss. They will deliver anything for the right price. When a job requires delivering a book for a ridiculous amount of money, they jump on it. What's the worst that could happen from delivering a book? 

This Book Belongs to Olo- Olo is a lonely boy who wants to make new friends and show them his homemade pop-up book. 

The Story- A podcaster turned journalist finds out his former colleague and lover has committed suicide. Looking into it, he finds weird recordings and messages at her home. 

Thoughts:
Overall, I liked this. Each story was sufficiently creepy, and I liked that they all revolved around a book. My favorite was The Dark Brothers’; although it was not shit-my-pants scary, it thoroughly creeped me out. 

Stars: 3⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: .0
Eyeroll: 1⭐️
Genre: Horror
Series: No 
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Joe Hempel
Narrator Rating: 3.5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cliffhanger: No

I had high hopes for this one because I enjoyed Hidden Pictures. Unfortunately, this didn’t live up to my expectations. I never disliked all the characters so much, but at the same time, I understood the reason for their actions. It truly amazed me: 1. What some people would do for money; 2. What would people with money do to keep it 3. What someone would overlook/do for someone they love. Overall, this was a quick read and kept my attention.  

Stars: 3.5⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice:  .5🌶️ 
Eyeroll: 2.5⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Thriller
Series: No 
Format: Hardcover
Narrator: N/A
Narrator Rating: 
Cliffhanger: No

I enjoyed this. Although it is listed as a horror story, it's not scary but gets gruesome toward the end. Abitha is a strong-willed woman with a quick tongue living in a patriarchal society. She gets into trouble a lot, especially with her brother-in-law, Wallace. I have not hated a character so much in such a long time. As my grandmother would say, he can talk a long walk off a short pier. This was my first Brom novel and won't be my last. If you are a fan of audiobooks, I suggest picking this up. Barrie Kreinik was amazing. There is a part where she sings, and it is beautiful. 

Stars:4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 0
Eyeroll: 0 
Genre: Horror/Historical Fiction
Series: No 
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Barrie Kreinik 
Narrator Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cliffhanger: No

I've read two other Darcy Coates books, and I enjoyed them. Although I did not like this one, I will chalk it up to it being one of her earlier works. I did not like the characters. Adriene is 22 years old and has no family. I know she is young, but I found her very childish. She meets a few women from town for about an hour and keeps referring to them as her friends, like she's known them her whole life. It was just weird, and I found it annoying after a while. I did not like the story. It was cheesy, silly, and totally cliché. After the big twist, I yelled to myself, "REALLY?" I did not like her writing. Wolfgang was said WAY too much to the point where I wanted to throw my phone across the room. I also felt a lot of stuff was repetitive.

The book's name is The Haunting of Ashburn House, which infers that it is about ghosts. There are ghosts, but they aren't doing the haunting. The haunting is done by an evil undead aunt who somehow was born with an ancient magic that allowed her to steal the life force of people she killed.

A lot of my complaints are all me. I wasn't enjoying this, and instead of DNF'ing it, I continued to listen. So, after a while, every little thing started grinding my gears. 

Side note: I did not find this scary. Again, this might just be me. Maybe I have watched too many horror movies for novels to scare me. I am determined to find at least one this spooky season. 

Stars: 1.5⭐️
Spice: 0
Eyeroll: 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
Genre: Horror
Series: No 
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Eva Kaminsky 
Narrator Rating: 3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cliffhanger: No

I absolutely loved this. It sucked me in from the very beginning. It had everything I love: sarcastic humor, a charming FMC, super sexy and total book BF MMC, an instant attraction but slow-moving romance, terrific supporting characters, and a bit of the supernatural. I wouldn’t say I like it when books are too smutty, but I enjoy it a little bit. Florence claims to write amazing smut scenes, but when it came to the actual scenes in the book, they were very PG. I am not complaining about that; I find it weird that the character made several references to her smut scenes, but the scenes in the book were very tame. This also made me rethink my dislike of contemporary romance novels. I think I need to add more for my TBR. 

Stars: 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice:  .5🌶️ 
Eyeroll: 1⭐️
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: No 
Format: Paperback
Narrator: N/A
Narrator Rating: N/A
Cliffhanger: No