If Regina George was a cannibal sadist.

The characters were very textbook and cliche in ways where you just think no one acts like that. Kim was very much… written by a man. These aren’t necessary bad things just something to note. 

Kim is fun and as a reader you get the most bang for your buck being in the POV of the antagonist. She’s a fucked up human being and reading about it is oh so interesting.

While a lot of gore happened, I found it a bit repetitive for the last chunk of the book up until the final showdown. 

Overall, it was good but not great. I’d recommend if you like splatterpunk. 

An interesting book that gave me the chills and disturbed me. My biggest critique is that I didn’t think Lowen was really likable. She certainly wasn’t unlikable, but I never felt connected to her as a character. Honestly she was a little weird and off. 

When I read the end where we discover Verity might not have been the monster we think, I was convinced this was a misunderstanding. However, the more I think about it the more I doubt the truth in Verity’s final letter. Why was she so creepy? Why did Lowen find Crew in Verity’s room with a knife and a cut on his chin? He certainly didn’t do that himself. My biggest praise of this book is that both version of events are believable and we’ll never truly know if Verity was lying or telling the truth.

Hated it from the jump.

This whole thing could be considered a spoiler.

A book that shows a story of domestic violence that really isn’t discussed. You can really understand how things begin and warning signs while also seeing the future of that relationship in Lily’s parents. The authors note made me tear up. 

I wish Lily would’ve considered getting an abortion. She mentioned wanting kids in the future but never made it seem like being a mother was her life’s goal or anything she wanted in the semi-near future. She’s young, not religious, and pregnant with a man who has physically harmed her. I just wish abortion was an option. But I suppose without the baby as a plot device her decision about her marriage would’ve been different. 

This book made me surprisingly sad. I REALLY liked Vera, so it was extra brutal to read of the torture at the hands of The Slob. 

The situations were fucked up and twisted, Vera is a great protagonist, and it was a pretty well written story (although, I will say, at times it feels like it’s written by an angsty teenage boy, so it’s not the best, just by no means bad).

I would give this book a higher rating if not for the ending. It was immature and stupid.

It’s interesting to discuss the system where girls are being handed to The Slob, but a group of gay men? For a purpose of being more feminine? Huh?? And there was so many awkward attempts in humor within the group when they didn’t have “product” for the crime lord that didn’t fit with the rest of the book. The shift in tone didn’t make sense and wasn’t well executed. The more I think about it the more annoyed I get. I fee like the author made a joke of his own book and I can’t fathom why.

This book reminded me of my Barbie Detective game I played on the computer as a child, if Barbie was trauma-ridden and solving the crimes as they take place. Tooth is definitely the handyman. Anyway, this analogy made me chuckle.

It’s unfair to compare this book too harshly to the first because they’re entirely different stories that just follow the same person, but my biggest gripe is that so much in this book felt unrealistic, which is semi-explained, I guess. But it’s the realism in The Summer I Died that made me think, “holy shit, this could really happen” that drew me in so deeply.

Much of the gore took place in action scenes, so considerably less graphic than TSID, but still plenty graphic. 

Not sure how I feel about the woo-woo ending, but I’ll give it a chance. It was still a well written story and was a great read.

On to book 3!

My first five-star splatterpunk read. This book delivers on disturbing and graphic content, but I never felt the author was trying to one up himself or write scenes purely for shock value. The characters were complex but likable (except for Skinny Man, the sadistic torturer, of course) and it felt realistic, like if everything went wrong one day this COULD happen to you. Perfect blend of gore and plot. 

I really wanted to like it but Ryen was unbelievably cliche and I never understood her motives for being awful. I mean, she’s embarrassed to use her inhaler because breathing is nerdy I guess? She’s Full Brutal without the gore. There’s not a single thing that’s unique about her.