raesengele's reviews
310 reviews

I would be curious to talk to somehow who grew up Mormon and what they took away from this book. I was never entirely sure why Mormonism except clearly the author is ex-mormon. I don't know, I almost wished it had been a made up cult, but then again I love the original Candle Cove creepypasta/ARG and I love creepy cult/folk horror, so I think I was just wanting it to go a different direction. There were some things that felt to me kind of surface level deconstructionism, but I deconstructed from Catholicism, not Mormonism, so I don't know if that might have made a difference or not. But other than that it was a fun read. Definitely something I'd recommend to someone wanting to get started in horror. Creepy without being too scary or gruesome. I'd even more categorize it more on the gothic end of the spectrum what with the desert and the creepy house. Maybe cosmic? Something like that.

Holy hell was there so much more to this case than I realized. It really demonstrates just how easily people can slip through the cracks, especially when the cracks are practically canyons.

The only thing that kept this from being 5 stars was that I was honestly hoping for a bit more personal commentary from the author considering she is from the area. I think I've just been itching for another true crime book along the lines of I'll Be Gone in the Dark and The Stranger Beside Me and was kind of hoping this would be it.

This was a fun short book that plays on the satanic panic pretty well. It didn't necessarily wow me, but I had fun, so there's that.

This one is complicated for me and I might end up changing my rating the longer I sit with it.

When I first started it, my rating was around a 2, half way through it bumped up to a 4, after that last part it started inching back to a 3. But the more I sit with it and after talking about it with my book club, the more I'm thinking there's a lot more under the surface to this book. I might have to read it again to get the full picture.

I can say for sure, I want the beginning redone. Not so much rewritten, but just moved around. I want to start with the history of Crow and get a feel for the area before jumping straight into the murder especially considering how much the history plays into the story even if subtly.

I'm still iffy on the end. I'm not sure it was honestly needed, or at least not in the way it was done. I can piece together what the point was, but truthfully I shouldn't have to piece together the point on my own after the fact. I just felt like the story of the girls and the town was strong enough of a commentary on true crime and local legend without that ending.

I will say, my biggest gripe through the whole thing was that I was constantly aware I was reading fiction. Reading HOUSE OF LEAVES, a book with wildly fantastical things, I found myself constantly questioning how much if any of it was based on reality. I kept googling it the whole time reading to confirm, no, this is a fictional book. I never had that feeling while reading Penance and I haven't honestly figured out yet why that is. I don't know if it's because I could pinpoint every true crime case she borrowed for her storyline or if it was the way it was written, but something about it just kept me from fully being immersed in the "true" part of the "true crime" concept which was kind of a bummer since that's what I was most excited for.

Right off the top: this is not the LGBT friendly cyberpunk book that it's advertised as. Yes, it's full of queer characters, but in the way of the 50s and not a queer woman in the modern era. Seriously, if the author's queerness hadn't been included in her bio I would have thought this was written by someone outside of the community.

This is my second attempt to get through this book and though I got further this time, I've been absolutely dragging my feet doing so. The base concept of Autonomous is intriguing, but every primary character (except for Jack) and the romances are so uncomfortable they were getting in the way. I read other reviews to get a feel for if I should just push through and decided from there it's just not worth it. I'm already tired of man is clearly into other man but even after having sex with him refuses to admit his feelings because "I'm not gay" (or the f-slur which Newitz uses a shocking amount for a queer woman) types of stories and I was willing to push through if the book ended with him getting past that, but since he seemingly doesn't AND gets away with it by coercing his genderless android partner to change pronouns for him I'm just not here for that. I'm also just not here for Jack's weird relationship with Threezed. The power imbalance is just too much even if Jack is (poorly) fighting against it.

I skimmed the scene with Jack's ill-fated partner which was just disappointing as well. It felt so akin to Cosima and Delphine in Orphan Black but with a heavy dose of bury your gays and I'm just tired of that, as well.

I guess I'm just already too tired with the state of the world to give my time to a book focusing on characters and topics that are even more bleak.