A preface, three cassette transcripts, and an afterword make up this story about some found tapes that are mysterious at best and indicative of an international conspiracy at worst.

Kind of like <i>The Black Tapes</i> podcast where what you don't know about sound can hurt you, except less spooky and without the snarky commentary. Also kind of like a Lemony Snicket book where the obvious questions never get answered, except without the humor.

I enjoyed reading it, but it needed more framework and solidity to be really good.

A bunch of assholes spend the night in a haunted house. The prose is nonsensical, the characters are annoying, and most egregious of all, it's not even scary.

Genuinely mind-boggling.

I'm not a mother, but it's pretty insane that the day after she has a whole-ass baby Addison is running around solving crimes. The interactions with her husband and family are also extremely forced. The mystery could have been a decent story if the writing weren't so lackluster.

Meh.

I really tried to like this since it came so highly recommended, but it was just so dull. Gave up at 31%.

A fun and twisty-turny thriller.

<i>I have not felt such longing before.
Your very absence makes me angry
   That anything in the world can keep us apart.</i>

Both the love poems and the poems about life and the economy hold up forty years after they were published.

<i>Lately I've wondered about strange things
Like guys who claim to make a great martini.
How the hell do you make a bad one?
Leave out the gin?</i>