I've loved zombie stories since I first saw George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" as a kid. Zombie movies, zombie books, zombie games...I grew up obsessed with them all. (Fun fact: my daughter's middle name is 'Romero'.)

Then the zombie craze of the early 2000s to 2010s burnt me out after a lot of mediocre zombie movies and novels.

It's only recently that I've started to venture back into zombie horror, with this being my first zombie novel, and it was a really satisfying return to the genre.

I'll be honest, I wasn't keen on the prologue and half expected to end up DNF'ing the story based on it, however, the quality of the writing and characters steps up dramatically with the main story.

The story follows Carla and her return home to New Zealand after being away for several years. Unfortunately for Carla, her timing couldn't be worse. A viral outbreak has taken hold of Christchurch, and it's turning victims into frenzied cannibals.

It took me quite a while to warm up to the main character, but by the end of the story, I was genuinely invested in their survival and that of their companions. 

It's a tight focus story that does a good job of building tension and a sense of hopelessness that's elevated by authentic feeling familial moments.

I really liked that the characters weren't written to be selfless and heroic. Instead, their actions felt realistic, often tragically so.

I also think it's worth mentioning that the book has two authors. Often, co-written novels can feel disjointed or disconnected, but I didn't get that feeling at all with this book. The writing, tone, and story felt cohesive and balanced.

Something I particularly loved were the elements of New Zealand culture that were included in the story, especially the inclusion of Te reo Māori words and phrases.

This was a really interesting and enjoyable read, and I definitely recommend it to fans of the genre.

Thank you to Denver Grenell and Ian J. Middleton for giving me a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I can not recommend this collection despite it being the best narrated collection of Lovecraft stories that I have ever listened to.

The reason I can't recommend it is because despite how easy it would have been to switch out all the N-words for other terms, Leman and Branney (two white men) decided to leave in every single one of them.

We all know that Lovecraft was a eugenics supporting racist. He was a trash person. No debate. Despite that, people (myself included) love his stories, but that doesn't mean we have to continue to stay true to his use of harmful racial slurs. They literally have no effect on the story AT ALL.

It's seriously disappointing. 

It also means this audiobook is useless unless you either a) wear headphones or b) don't mind offending and/or harming the people around you.

There's no excuse for this. 
They should have done better.

This is an awkward book to review.

On one hand, it wasn't a very good horror novel, and yet, on the other hand, I really kind of liked it.

After reading, I went and double-checked what its genre shelving was, and it's definitely shelved as 'horror'. In that regard, it's a pretty mediocre story. 

The situation, especially the television production and health and safety aspects, is extremely contrived and often unbelievable. The male protagonist - Nick - is supposedly claustrophobic but gives only the shallowest indications of it. There's never a real sense of atmosphere or danger since the characters are very capable and level-headed and don't seem to be that concerned by their situation. Not to mention the always dependable satellite phone. 

I mean, at no point did I feel like the characters were really in danger. The threat didn't feel that dangerous to me - neither from the environment (good ol' Al!) or the antagonist (wall-climbing doesn't make you scary). 

The novel read more like an action story than a horror story.

So, I guess I would have to say that I didn't find it to be a very good horror story.

And yet...

I actually really enjoyed it! It's no work of literary mastery, but it was a lot of fun. 

I enjoyed the story, despite how obvious and predictable it was, and I enjoyed how capable Jess and Sophia were. I loved that the LGBTQIA+ elements felt totally natural and unremarkable (a good thing), too.

And that's why I have absolutely no idea how to rate this book! I'm going to go with a nice neutral 3 stars until I can figure it out.
 

Whilst US-based, this book is an important read for everyone, especially those who struggle to understand what abolition means, how it could work, and why it's important. 

"No More Police" perfectly and succinctly shows us why the current system is both ineffective and actively harmful.

The arguments in this book are well thought out and supported by both strong anecdotal data and peer-reviewed research. There is an extensive section near the back of the book that cites all of the author's sources, which makes "doing your own research" easy.

The current system is broken and does not prevent crime or keep people safe, especially people from marginalised communities. 

The current system needs to be abolished, and a new system focused on rehabilitation, not punitive measures, needs to be implemented.

I especially recommend this book to people who support the Blue Lives Matter movement, are members of a policing force, or know someone who is a police officer as it does a brilliant job of showing how individual "good cops" still uphold, support, and enforce harmful systems. I say this as someone who used to work for their state's police service. 

I've come to the conclusion that Stephen Graham Jones just isn't for me. 

On paper, his books should be exactly the kinds of stories I'd love reading, but for some reason, I just don't enjoy them.

I often love the ideas behind his stories, but there's something about the way he executes them that just doesn't work for me.

I did finish this book, unlike the previous two, but it was more out of laziness (I didn't want to get up and stop the audiobook) than enjoyment.

The best way I can explain reading this book is to describe it as being analogous to watching a movie that someone has already told you the entire plot for. That's how this book felt. You knew what was happening from early on, and then it was just a heap of internal monologuing by the protagonist as they set about doing it. 

I usually enjoy unreliable narrators, but this one was just so blatantly obvious that there was never any real doubt as to what was going on. I couldn't find any horror elements beyond the fact that people were occasionally being murdered either.

Also, the title annoys me since there's only one mannequin and the events occur over several days. 

Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" is my all-time favourite novel. I've read it so many times now that it feels like an old friend. Not the characters, but the novel itself.

One of the reasons that I love the story so completely is that it speaks to me in different ways depending on where I am in my own life. It never truly feels like I'm reading the same story but a slightly changed, slightly edited version that now shines new light and insight on one or more aspects or themes. I always find myself gaining a new perspective on the characters and their actions. 

It still blows my mind to think that Mary Shelley was only eighteen when she started to write it, but I also don't think anyone older could have written it either. It was her combination of idealistic youth, maternal tragedy (as a daughter and as a mother), second-class citizenry, and romanticism that allowed her to write such a powerful story.

"I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe." 
- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein. 

Written in 1976, many of the correlations between the Book of Revelations and the state of the world are no longer immediately identifiable or as relevant which affects the overall feel and tone of the story, however, this slow-burn horror is still a decent read.

Religious horror has never been a preferred sub-genre of mine, with the exception of The Exorcist, so I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy this book.

In the end, I found the plot intriguing, and I enjoyed the overall story, but I did feel that the atmosphere suffered on multiple occasions due to pacing issues. I also kept wanting there to be more to the themes that were touched on but never really developed and I think there needed to be more ambiguity in regards to what was occurring in order to really draw the reader in.

While it doesn't invite a reread, I would still recommend this book to fans of the genre.

Full Disclosure: Algernon Blackwood is a favoured author of mine.

'Ancient Sorceries' contains four of Algernon Blackwood's better known tales - Ancient Sorceries, The Listner, The Sea Fit, and The Willows.
It should be noted for fans of the author that it does not contain all of the stories included in Blackwood's 'Ancient sorceries and other weird stories (1927)' as I had assumed it would.

Blackwood, named an inspiration by H. P. Lovecraft, excels in the art of atmospheric horror and leans heavily into humanity's fear of the unexplained.

Written in the early years of the twentieth century, these stories have a distinctly Victorian style, especially in regards to the tone and language. Unfortunately, it does mean that they also contain some of the unfavourable and, occasionally, bigoted views and beliefs of that era.

As far as an introduction to Blackwood's stories, I worry that the story order may deter some readers if they are unaccustomed to Victorian literature. 
I personally always recommend newcomers to start with The Willows as I feel it provides an easier introduction to the Victorian writing style and to Blackwood's preference for slowly building tension through multiple subtle occurrences.

The book is bound by a gorgeously illustrated cover that I just have to have on my bookcase.

What a beautiful book! 

It was a genuine pleasure to read this book and to follow a patch of woodlands through each of the four seasons.

Between Harmsworth's obvious love and enthusiasm for nature and the inclusion of many beautiful photographs, it was impossible not to fall in love with that space myself.

Living in Australia, it was very interesting to me to see the different flora and fauna and the way the seasons present themselves compared to my home environment. 

This is a genuine lovely read, and I highly recommend it to all fans of the natural world.

An anthology of short stories that imagine dark and bizarre events in the life of a teenage Marie Curie.

When I read the premise for this anthology, I was really excited to read it. I've been interested in Marie Curie, her work and her life, since I was a child, and so the idea of inserting her into weird and spooky scenarios appealed to my little horror-loving heart.

I enjoyed most of the tales included in the collection to varying degrees. As is the way of anthologies, some stories were better than others, but overall, I felt the stories leaned more towards 'good' than 'great'.

I found that reading multiple tales in one sitting didn't work well for me. Due to Marie, and often her family, being the main character in each tale, I found it hard to separate the individual stories from each other, which caused the differences between them to feel like inconsistencies. Once I started to read just one story at a time, this feeling of inconsistency went away.

Overall, this is an enjoyable anthology with a unique and interesting theme.