DNF

I had to stop and google how this one ended because I couldn't find the motivation to keep reading. 

It's decently written, and I love the way it reinterprets a classic fairytale, but nothing happens for the longest time, and then things move really slowly once something does occur. 

Now that I know the ending, I think I would have regretted investing anymore time than I did.

I also found that the handling of all the sisters wasn't done in a very clear manner, so I frequently had to break immersion in order to recall who was who. 

I hadn't read Koontz since I was a teenager, so I wasn't sure how well the story would have aged. 
It was a little outdated with technology and science, which is to be expected, but otherwise, I felt it held up pretty well. I especially like how any sexualising of women was written in a disapproving and unacceptable way, which isn't common in books from the early 1980s. 

Phantoms was always my favourite Koontz book, and I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting it. 

The pacing is just right, the characters are well-developed, and I enjoyed how they generally responded in believable ways to what was occurring. 

I seriously enjoyed this re-telling of Lovecraft's tale, "The Horror at Red Hook".

LaValle has taken one of Lovecraft's weakest tales and turned it into a fully-formed short story that subverts the original brilliantly. 

By giving a voice to a Black character, LaValle weaves a tale that asks the reader to consider which is the greater evil - cosmic indifference to all life or white society's malice towards Black lives?

This book is a brilliant mix of horror, alternate history, magical realism, and social narrative. 

The imagery invoked is some of the best I have read in a long time. I really want to see this made into a short film with a strong focus on cinematography. 

I also enjoyed the characters and the deeper topics that the story touches on. 

As something of an armchair naturalist, I've enjoyed reading several books about bees, so I was excited to listen to this book.

My first impression was that the narrator was very well chosen. Their narration was so expressive and full of genuine joy that I had to stop and check who the narrator was and was pleasantly surprised to see that the author herself was narrating her book. 

Howard has a wonderful way of truly conveying the charm and magic of the natural word. As an enthusiast and not an expert, Howard's love and passion for bees and nature comes pouring through. I frequently found myself sharing in her wonder.

I personally appreciate that Howard talks about her own rented home and how she has made pollinator friendly improvements to it. As a renter, so much of the advice for pollinator friendly gardens is outside my scope, and I often feel demotivated instead of motivated by the time I finish the book. So I was very pleased and excited to hear how Howard has turned her small rented spaces into a pollinators paradise and I have now started to research how to turn our own little rented yard into a pollinator friendly environment.

Howard has written a charming memoir that truly captures both the majesty and wonder of the natural world and her own personal journey to reconnect and live in partnership with it.

I definitely recommend this book.

There's a lot to love about this short cosmic horror by Hailey Piper.
It has all the elements that you would expect - cults, fanatics, sacred geometry, beings from across time and space - as well as some unexpected and welcomed character depth and backstory. 

Usually when authors don't follow Lovecraft's approach to describing cosmic horror (by describing how indescribable a thing is) the writing starts to become messy and confused but Piper manages to describe the collision of space and time and the unexplainable in a very poetic, and understandable, way.

My only criticism is that the final third of the story felt a little slow, with the story lingering on some scenes for longer than felt necessary. 

I listened to the audiobook version of this book, and I found the narration and performance by Allyson Voller very good. There was a little bit of confusion towards the end with two distinct sounding characters sounding like each other at times, but otherwise, it was good.

There's a lot I liked about this book - the story, the characters, the atmosphere - but it was severally disadvantaged by poor editing. It needed to lose about ten chapters worth of writing to prevent it from feeling drawn out and plodding.

Dialogue scenes felt as though they were written for a screenplay more than a novel as conversations were often long when they needed to be concise, repeated frequently, and included unnecessary minutiae.

There were also sub-plots that felt pointless and only padded out the already overstuffed story.

Plus, by the time anything was revealed in the story, it was already really obvious or felt completely pointless or irrelevant. 

I just couldn't keep my enjoyment or interest up with how slow things developed, so I ended up speed reading through the last twenty chapters. 

It's a shame because the actual premise of the story is really good.

Also, Markert falls for the "white standard" trope, only describing the skintone and race of non-white characters. 

I have been a fan of Ambrose Bierce's work since I was a kid, especially his ghost stories, so I was really excited to receive a copy of this book. I found the premise intriguing and the overall story interesting. However, I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped.

I appreciate the author's commitment to writing Bierce as authentically as possible. The problem with writing a real person in a fictional setting is that if the portrayal doesn't feel completely genuine, it can really affect the reader's ability to remain immersed in the story. Unfortunately, this was the case for me. Whilst I commend the author's use of actual quotes and paraphrasing of Bierce's works and letters, I think the author struggled to turn Bierce's written eccentricities and quirk into his character's speech. People often have a different way of communicating in writing than they do in speech, and it made the dialogue in the story feel awkward and stilted.

I also found several of the characters to be lacking in substance and needing to be fleshed out more.

Overall, it was an interesting read, but I feel my personal interest in Bierce was the only thing that kept me reading at multiple points in the story.

Despite being a fan of horror novels, especially those written by women, and despite also prioritising Australian authors, I had somehow overlooked Darcy Coates prior to reading "From Below". 

"From Below" is an atmospheric haunted 'house' story set in an eerily preserved ocean liner that has been sitting on the ocean floor for the past 90 years.

There's a lot about this story that I enjoyed - the atmosphere, the characters, the writing - but the main aspect that truly drew me in was the scenery and the imagery surrounding the crew and passengers of the Arcadia. This is one story that I desperately want turned into a movie so I can 'see' it.

The story is broken up between the past - the Arcadia's final days - and the present - the expedition to explore the wreck of the Arcadia.

I really liked the way that the past and present ran alongside each other. Sometimes, this approach to storytelling can feel disconnected or like two separate stories being told in a single book, but Coates manages to maintain their connection and relevance to each other.

My main criticism is that I felt the final dive was unnecessary, and it would have been better to combine the last two dives into one.

Personally, I would have also liked it if the author focused as much on the 'wrongness' of the ship as they did the claustrophobic/diving danger elements in regards to the present storyline. I feel it could have used a little more of the past storyline's spookiness.

I recommend this book for fans of the traditional, slow-burn haunted house story. The underwater setting simply adds an extra layer (or two) to the foreboding and claustrophobic atmosphere inherent in a good haunting. 

In 'What A Mushroom Lives For', Hathaway invites the listener to reconsider their way of thinking about the natural world, especially in regards to fungi, and whether our beliefs and feelings towards the natural world are unfairly limited. 

Hathaway sets about showing how everything from the British aversion to mushrooms, to the dominance of english text in science, and the belief that 'will' is a characteristic of humans alone have shaped our view and understanding of how fungi exist within nature. Often labelled as passive, Hathaway shows the listener that there is much more to fungi than we know and paints a picture of a world that is extremely dependent on its need for fungi. 

I loved the way that I was constantly challenged to reconsider my preconceptions and understanding of the natural world. I found myself having several "Oh, of course!" moments when Hathaway offered a new perspective, which was so obvious that I couldn't believe that I had never considered it before. 

I found the links between mushrooms and local economies, social change, and cultural identity fascinating and something I never would have considered on my own. 

This book is heavy on academic philosophising and, therefore, best suited to those with an interest in natural philosophy and/or a strong fascination with fungi. 

I enjoyed the narration by Christopher Grove and found his performance suited the subject matter perfectly. Grove's speech is clear and well-paced. 

On a personal note, I appreciated that Grove pronounced 'fungi' as 'fun-guy' and not as 'fun-j-eye' as some other narrators do. Whilst not relevant to the quality of the audio production, it did allow me to remain engaged in the book without being distracted.