poisoned_icecream's reviews
1964 reviews

Cordelia lives with her sorcerer mother Evangeline, who is extremely overbearing and abusive towards her daughter. She does a spell to make Cordelia obedient, which means she controls her actions and behavior. They are both poor, and after Evangeline's "benefactor" decides he no longer wants her, so she makes him obedient and has him murder his family, then she is determined to marry a wealthy man and finds a  bachelor squire who lives with his sister named Hester. Cordelia grows to care about them and with the help of Hester and some friends sets out to stop her mother from hurting and killing more people.

Like everything T. Kingfisher has written this did not let me down. It is a real page-turner and towards the end I did not want to stop reading. One specific image will live rent-free in my mind and I'm honestly fine with that. Also while this is a retelling of The Goose Girl, it is not necessary to have read that to enjoy this book.  This story gets 10/10 geese.

Some of these stories made me feel a bit frightened and unsettled, but the majority were more funny than scary in my opinion. Still enjoyed this collection and would recommend to readers who like horror, fantasy and scifi.

Garrett Biedermeier is the survivor of a massacre. He is privileged and adored by the community. Four outcasts are angry and resentful towards Garrett for bullying them, so they come up with an extremely idiotic and irresponsible plan to teach Garrett a lesson.

Despite how gory this is, there's also a lot of heart and humanity in this book. I really cared and felt so bad for these characters. I'm excited to read the sequel.

I hate human babies

I really like this anthology. Some stories are horror, fantasy, scifi or a combination of one or all three of those. All of the stories are excellent and the illustrations before each story added a nice touch. I'm excited to read this again later.

This is such a wonderful and weird book that combines horror and fantasy. It is about Josie, a woman who's divorced from her husband and her father died. She now avoids interacting with people and lives with her dog Po. She is also estranged from her mother and drinks a lot of beer as a way to deal with her grief. One day Josie notices a sudden plant growth and then there's a talking skeleton in her backyard who calls herself Skelly. There's also a new neighbor named Sue who insists on interacting with Josie and won't take the hint to go away, and who may know the truth about the vines and Skelly. The interaction between Josie and Skelly was both funny and frustrating. I enjoyed it whenever Skelly told a story and really grew attached to her, as well as all the characters in this book. This is now one of my favorite and I am definitely reading more of Tiffany Meuret's writing. :)

I don't read romantic comedies that much, so this was out of my comfort zone but I actually ended up liking it. It is about Ember Lee Cardinal and the lies she uses in an attempt to get ahead, such as answering white instead of Native American in a job application to be an accountant. Before the interview she meets Danuwoa Colson, who she's instantly attracted to and turns out to be an IT guy at the place she applies at and ends up. Their work has a no-dating policy so Ember comes up with more lies to hide that she is having sex and dating Danuwoa.

Ember's lies made me so anxious and there were several moments where I had to temporarily put the book down. However I can't blame her for lying due to how hostile the corporate world can be for people for anyone who doesn't fit the norm. Also really appreciated how she has a supportive community who help her just because they believe in uplifting each other.

The things I didn't like in this book though is that the word and phrases "pregnant pause" (used twice), "just friends" and "prude" are used. None of those are necessary even in a romance novel. It would also have been nice to have some chapters with Danuwoa's perspective. Despite these few flaws, this is still a good debut and I will read more from Danica Nava.

This is the sapphic fantasy romance I didn't know I needed or wanted. Viola may lose her job as a librarian and she is under pressure to marry a man and have children (yuck). All her life she has told stories of her own life and fairytales to a gargoyle that she named Iggy. Iggy/Boudicca enjoyed listening to Viola's stories, so when she's tasked by her creator to appear human and guard Viola from some shades, she is excited at the opportunity to speak with her. I really enjoyed this novel and I am looking forward to the sequel. However there were some moments where the way characters felt too modern for a book that's supposed to take place in the twentieth century. Still I would recommend this to readers who enjoy sapphic fantasy books.

This is a memoir written in verse. The poems are sad but also beautiful and heartfelt. I'll definitely read more by Abi Liebegott. :)

The theme of this anthology is hauntings that are not in homes and they're all in Utah. I had a great time reading this anthology. All these stories are so creepy and unsettling. Some of the hauntings take place at a rest stop, an abandoned amusement park, a Wal Mart, a ship at the bottom of the ocean, an assisted living facility, and there's also a story in which a person rather than a place is haunted. I highly recommend this anthology to anyone who is into horror.