tvislife's reviews
373 reviews

Darkly funny and enjoyable! 

This book follows Dixie, the lone survivor of a family annihilator, who then (for some reason) decides to move in to the “haunted” house where her whole family was murdered, and her life starts to unravel. 

This was a great little read! The main character, Dixie, isn’t exactly “likable” but man I loved her as a character. Dixie, along with the writing style in general, really reminded me of Gillian Flynn’s novels. There was a mind of cynical crassness, with a tint of humor, on every page. It was dirty, gross, and yet just all out fun to read. I was thoroughly entertained throughout the novel, and even though I could predict some of the twists, I still got some good surprises in there. Highly recommend! 

I love Daisy! 

Fun addition to the Wallflower series. 

Lilian is a delightful protagonist—brash and confident in herself, but also a decent and kind person. She’s the exact kind of “loud and assertive” heroine that I like in a book, because she’s independent but not obnoxious. 

Her match, Westcliff, is less interesting. Honestly I think I liked him better in his sister’s book, but he wasn’t bad here, just unremarkable. Their romance was still cute to follow and I enjoyed it! 

I’ve thought about reading this one a lot, and finally got around to it. It’s a coming-of-age story, following a group of paper delivery girls as they get dragged through time. 

I didn’t love this, but I didn’t dislike it either. I think the writers did an excellent job of making it feel very 80’s in the way they talk to each other, and their little references. The art was totally gorgeous, the art style is what drew me to these comics in the first place—engaging and colorful, every page had some new treat to look at. 

I just didn’t really care about the story much. The time travel stuff felt kinda awkward and random at times, and the “war” was hard to follow, even just over a few days—I have no idea how people followed the plot when they went week by week. The old-timers vs. the young people just didn’t seem super clear to me, and the random dinosaurs and robots threw me off, like who was for what and what even was happening?? 

This is a good choice for someone who loves comics and coming of age stories, especially combined, but for anyone else, you could take or leave it. 

I have once again been fooled by a dope cover. This book follows a preacher and an ex-addict, as their lives intersect when a devil comes to earth to offer deals. 

The premise to this book was good—I love a religious horror, and the idea of a preacher working with a devil (although not new) is still an interesting premise. It’s easy to see how power can corrupt a man like that, who already has a taste for it as a spiritual leader. And the inclusion of Seph, an ex-addict who just wanted to be better for his son, was a good juxtaposition for the preacher character (corruption of the “good” spiritual leader, vs his foil, a “bad” person serving out a sentence but who wants to do what’s right). 

That being said—a good premise does not make a good book! The writing was unbearably clunky, and nothing was explained past a surface level. Like, there was no complexity or drama to anything I was reading, and the characters were all very one-note. It was just “This happened, then this happened, He said this, He wanted this”. It was like someone had an idea of what they wanted to happen, and then wrote the bare minimum amount of words (while using a thesaurus) to connect those events. Just not an enjoyable read, and seemed to drag on even though it was incredibly short, just because it was hard to stay engaged when I didn’t care about anyone or anything. 

Feel free to skip this one. 

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Excellent novel, but not really what I would think of as a “Hannibal” novel. When I saw that this was the first in the Hannibal books, I thought we’d see a lot more of him. He’s barely in this! But that’s fine and this was still good. 

I really liked this story! The main villain was creepy and fucked up, the exact kind of evil I want in a novel like this. It was unique and crazy, but didn’t feel far-fetched like some serial killers in books, just weird enough to fit in to the world of the novel. I liked Will in this, but his character didn’t come close to the Will Graham in the TV show. Still, this was fun and I’d recommend to anyone looking for a good creepy thriller. 

Entertaining, but nothing special. 

It follows Grant Morgan, a Bowstreet Runner, who finds a not-quite-dead woman and investigates her attack while she tries to regain her memories. 

I liked this, but I didn’t love it. I’m glad it was re-written—the book was kind and understanding of sex workers and women’s choices in general, and I think did a good job bringing the discussion about it more current, and less judgmental than I imagine it was previously. Still, it’s not one of my favorite Kleypas books—I just found it kind of boring, despite the attempted murder and shenanigans going on. 

This book was painfully unreadable. I was drawn in by the gorgeous cover and the interesting premise, but the book itself just was not good. 

It follows two different characters, Noah and Malachia, every other chapter as they navigate the strange world proposed by the author. Noah seems like a character from our world, drawn in to the strange monster-like building as a salesman because he needed a job. Malachia’s chapters are something else entirely, and make almost zero sense. She doesn’t appear human, she’s some kind of acolyte or something, and there’s something about bones, godlike creatures, and a desire to restore something (?).

This book just did not make any sense. I could tell the author was going for a cheeky tone, making the horror absurd and funny—but it did not come off as funny, just juvenile and ridiculous. None of the descriptions or dialogue felt real or natural, it felt like the author was just trying to say “Ooo this is weird right? This is so weird, fuck, I’m weird ooo”. It felt like a high schooler trying to be creative in english class, trying to come up with a scary story in a time crunch using a thesaurus. The footnotes were pointless, and there were constant references to things that just didn’t work. 

I’ll say the only enjoyable part of the book was the actual newspaper sections, particularly the person on the island. Those sections I found genuinely engaging, and the moss reminded me of Annihilation. If the whole novel had that tone /  similar story structure, I think it could have been very good! That being said, that one small part did not make the book worth reading. I wouldn’t recommend. 

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC!

The ultimate “woman written by a man” book. Lordie. 

This could have been a great story, but I just could not get over the  “badass” characterization of Miriam. She’s a woman who can see how a person dies after a single touch, and drifts around seedy motels and dive bars, waiting for those deaths to happen to rob the corpses. 

The premise? It’s a very cool premise! The delivery? Not a very cool delivery at all! I mean, Miriam is the epitome of “girl a 12 year old boy would write to sound dangerous and sexy and cool”. She fucks, she cusses, she drinks, she doesn’t give a fuck about you! The ultimate “not like other girls” girl. 

I mean, Jesus, the dialogue was so cringey and lame, and her internal thoughts were just as bad. The author tried way too hard to make her a tough woman that he forgot there’s more to tough women than cussing and fucking—you have to actually write a person under all that! She felt so superficial and the story just felt juvenile as a result—which is a real shame, because I really really enjoyed the Wanderers books by Wendig and was excited to give this a try. 

Tip to readers—stick to his later stuff, after he learned that women are people. 

Pure trash and I loved every minute. 

Normally I hate “second chance” stories, but this one really got to me. I loved McKenna and Aline, and their story was beautiful and heartbreaking. A lot of the “separations” that happen in books like this feel ridiculous and dumb, but this was well done and seemed genuine. Beautiful.