reading_under_covers's Reviews (1.61k)

I honestly enjoyed this book so much for Tilly alone (protect her at all costs!!!) and it was great seeing the relationship between her and Poe!

There were definitely some cringe “of the time” moments in this one that were hard to read, but I was overall intrigued by the story.

The beginning was fun (my first locked room airplane Christie!!) but I lost the thread a bit 3/4 of the way through.

Love love love a Hercule Poirot calling himself “Papa Poirot” moment though.

A YA Horror like nothing I’ve yet read!

I love hiking and camping and reading spooky books about those things is one of my favorite things. This book sets us up with a great setting and an undiscovered rock face, a group of young 20-somethings, and something supernatural afoot.

I felt myself spiraling alongside the characters, while also wondering what exact force of nature they were up against!

I didn’t love the past timeline and most of the characters were extremely unlikeable, but otherwise, so many elements made this such a great debut!

I’ll definitely have to check out Jenny’s horror bookstore if I find myself in Louisville!

This book was much more about dealing with grief and trauma than it was a summer camp slasher (though we did get glimpses and mysteries surrounding that!)

Thankfully, that didn’t take away from me enjoying the overall story, and trying to figure out the pieces of the puzzle was fun.

The ending did leave me with way too many questions tho 😵‍💫

Holy 🦀!!!

I really enjoyed the first half of this one, but I got lost a bit in the latter half and did find myself muttering "what kind of mother???" quite a bit.

Intrigued to see what Clay's next book brings us!

There's being interested in true crime and there's being head over heels, make it your entire personality, love the killer type of being interested in true crime and our main girl Hannah really dives head first into that second category.

While I found it hard to root for Hannah most of the time (girl needs to find a really good therapist), it was interesting to see her story unfold and just how far she was willing to take her obsession when several women start dying and a handsome man is the suspect.

This one was wild, unhinged, and really shows one of the bad aspects that can arise from certain true crime fans.

Curious if we'll get a book 2 after that ending....

Thanks to Berkley for the early copy for review!

Publication Date: June 25

Four friends unearth a unique VHS tape that, when viewed, causes short-distance teleportation with euphoric after-effects, inadvertently launching a perilous trend. When they decide to make copies of it, things get a bit out of hand as we see people across time chase the same high.

TELEPORTASM by Joshua Millican is the third installment in the KILLER VHS SERIES and oh, what a fun time this one was!

This story was nostalgic, had old-school horror roots, and had such a great premise!

I loved jumping from one timeline to the next and seeing new characters experience the tape for the first time (some of them get downright gritty and goopy).

It was also an interesting lens through which addiction was explored! How far and how much are people willing to risk for that ultimate high?!

Another great read in this series!

Huge thanks to Shortwave for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Publication Date: June 25

I loved the dark academia setting and the secret society elements, but this one was an ultimate miss for me.

The main romance was cringe and I was skeptical all of the main characters as a portrayal of genius teen students. Honestly really had to push myself to get through this one once all of the setting and mystery elements were established.

I listened to this one on audio thanks to Libro.fm and would definitely recommend going that route as it’s great to hear the correspondences come from different voices!

This story is frustrating and infuriating and involves so much emotional manipulation. While it never gets financial (which I feel most modern catfishing stories evolve into), you can see the emotional and mental trauma “Ethan” left behind.

While I can see the importance of seeing so much of the email correspondence with Ethan, I found the latter half to be far more interesting and would’ve liked to get to that sooner!

Thanks to Tiny Reparations for an early copy for review!

The cover on this book is so fun and I really enjoyed the first few stories in this collection because of how reminiscent and millennial-focused they were!

However, I found the rest of it a bit rough to get through, especially without having any previous encounters with Jess’ work. 

This one is out June 18!