Book Review, Fiction, thriller

Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Thriller

Another twisty thriller by Gillian McAllister. When Olivia goes missing, Julia prepares to investigate another case of a missing woman. She’s had similar cases before in her career and expects this one to be much of the same, until she finds herself in a situation where she must instead frame someone for the crime. To make matters more complicated, Olivia was last seen on CCTV entering a dead-end alley she never exited.

I’m not usually a huge fan of a police procedural type mystery, but this one had a bunch of little inconsistencies/mysteries that kept me very intrigued. There were also several narrators, each grappling with some sort of question about right and wrong. The theme of family and how far people will go to protect those they love was also a steady undercurrent to the narrative. This added a really interesting element and, I thought, made the reader deeply consider the morality of the character’s decisions.

I found that there was a bit too much going on in the story in the end. It seemed like too many twists to me and I found it a little hard to believe everything together once all was revealed. I still brought the story, just felt it could have been stripped back a bit to pack more of a punch.

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Book Review, Fiction, Horror

The Elementals by Michael McDowell ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪.5
Genre: Southern Gothic Horror

The McCrays and the Savages own two big old Victorian mansions near the Gulf. The third mansion in the set appears to be abandoned and is slowly filling with sand. When, following a funeral, both families come to stay, the youngest, India, becomes instantly intrigued by the empty house. Whenever she mentions it to her family members though, they urge her to stay away.

This was a deeply spooky and atmospheric book. The descriptions of people and entities are unsettling and disturbing in a way that made my skin crawl. It’s a great read for this time of year.

None of the characters are likable, but I think that’s the point. They were each unique (often uniquely horrible) and we really got a sense of what their motivations are.

There isn’t all that much that happens in this book besides India wanting to go into the empty house and then everyone talking about their personal experiences with it. It felt to me like it just kind of wandered aimlessly and the number of times it was pointed out that one character was Black drove me a little crazy.

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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Mystery

When Nora’s father, Liam, dies unexpectedly, she is thrown into grief anew, having recently lost her mother as well. Then her stepbrother Sam shows up unexpectedly, eager to dig into their father’s death more. Together, he and Nora begin to investigate whether the fatal accidental fall was really an accident.

This story explores not only the mystery laid out, but also Nora’s relationships and Liam’s relationships, shown to us through narration that happens in the past. The sections in the past didn’t ever really click for me. They seemed much less fleshed out than the present and it made it hard for me to connect with or care about the characters.

I appreciated the atmospheric nature of the family home and the cat and mouse game Nora and Sam seem to be on as they chase down clues. That said, much of the story was on the slow side and wasn’t especially gripping.

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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller

I cannot say enough good things about this book. I was totally enchanted by Patch, a young boy with one eye who bravely saved a local girl from being kidnapped. His heroic actions change his life and the lives of those around him in ways that continue to spool on for decades.

This book is over 600 pages long and follows Patch and several people close to him throughout their lives. The beauty of this vast of a narrative is how deeply we get to know the characters and see how events and actions from the past impact them down the line. There were a lot of threads to keep track of: missing girls, bank robberies, convicted murderers and always, Patch’s search for a girl no one is sure exists.

I’ve read a lot of thrillers and this was unlike any I have experienced. It’s rare to find a so deeply character-driven thriller that also enthralls me so thoroughly in the mystery. It’s hard to review this book with any plot-specific detail without giving things away, so I will leave it pretty sparse. What I will say is that every single thread is wrapped up and explained so completely in ways that I never could have seen coming.

This book is dark and haunting and layered (and made me cry) and has characters that will stick with you long after you finish reading.

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Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction

Whiskey in a Teacup by Reese Witherspoon ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Memoir

I love a celebrity memoir audiobook that’s narrated by the author themself and Whiskey in a Teacup is just that. In it, Reese Witherspoon talks about her experience growing up in the South and what has stuck with her and influenced her life as an adult. From hosting and decorating to speaking and dressing, she highlights Southern ways of life that she grew up with and continues to carry with her.

I almost hesitate to call this a memoir, because it didn’t cover a big chunk of the author’s life like most memoirs do. It almost felt more like a cookbook/book about hosting parties with interludes and anecdotes from Reese’s life. I read the audiobook, and in looking at reviews of the physical book, I think I missed out by not having the accompanying photographs. That format might make this a nice coffee table book.

This was light and enjoyable, but I didn’t feel like I truly learned that much about Reese nor was I left feeling like I understood the point of the book.

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Book Review, Fiction, Romance

The Ex Vows by Jessica Joyce ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Romance

Georgia and Eli are best woman and man for their friend Adam’s wedding which seems to be falling apart the closer it gets. The two have hardly spoken since their breakup five years ago and are suddenly forced to band together to put out fires left and right. In the times they’ve seen each other since the breakup, they’ve been steadfastly stoic toward each other, but this time, Eli is acting differently and Georgia isn’t sure what to do with it.

I really enjoyed the romance in this book and the growing chemistry between Eli and Georgia. It was sweet and believable and very butterfly-worthy. I felt like we got to know the two main characters really well. We learn a lot about Georgia’s fears as she gets older that her relationships with her friends will change, which made her very relatable. We also get to see a lot of Eli’s growth in the time since their breakup, which created a strong case for Georgia to reconsider him.

External to the romance, this book was kind of a snooze. The things that kept going wrong leading up to Adam’s wedding made it super repetitive and I was literally rolling my eyes by the end of the book as they kept happening and the characters all reacted in the same way every time.

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Book Review, Fantasy, Fiction

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: (Cozy) Fantasy

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries was suchhh a cozy read. Emily, a professor, goes on an expedition to a small village to study the faerie folklore there. Emily is not a people-person and has a little trouble interpreting what other people’s actions mean. This element of her personality was really refreshing to see illustrated and it helped a lot with understanding her character. What Emily is good at is research into faeries. She has a wealth of knowledge about them and when her academic rival, Wendell Bambleby, shows up to disrupt her work she is not pleased.

I really enjoyed the setting of the little village of Hrafnsvik and the cast of characters who lived there. To be honest, I’m a few weeks out from finishing this book and I can’t say any of them particularly still stand out to me, but the close-knit community feel was there and I really appreciated it.

I don’t feel like all that much really happened in this book and, as is often the case for me and fantasy, I struggled to wrap my head totally around the world the story existed in. I enjoyed the general plot, but kind of skimmed a lot of the magical lore. I had a nice time with this book, but that was about the extent of the impact it had on me.

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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Fury by Alex Michaelides ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller

The Fury is narrated by Elliot Chase who is very pointedly telling us a story. It’s the story of his time on an island with movie star Lana Farrar, her husband and son and her friend Kate, and an ensuing murder. The island is sooo moody and atmospheric and as a lover of a locked-room mystery I was hooked

I loved the way this was narrated. You are aware from the beginning that you’re getting Elliot’s perspective and it’s filtered through his relationships with the other characters. I won’t say much more about that, but it added a lot to the layers of the story as the tale went on.

I’ve seen a lot of reviews talking about how slow this book is and, as a thriller, it is on the slow side, but I didn’t have a problem with that. We get a lot of backstory on the characters, which isn’t always the case with this kind of mystery and I really appreciated getting to know the nuances of their lives. With so few characters in the book, there’s plenty of time to delve into each of their pasts.

This is a twisty thriller with a lot of drama (in the sense that they’re all actors, so they’re dramatic) and I was intrigued from start to finish.

*Thank you to Celadon for a free copy of this book in exchange for my opinion.
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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Perfect Son by Freida McFadden ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller

Oof, a tough read for sure. The Perfect Son is the story of the Cass family. It mostly focuses on Erika who’s son Liam has a history of disturbing behavior from the time he is very young. Now, he’s a teenager and Erika does everything in her power to protect the people in Liam’s life from him. When a girl from his class at school goes missing, Erika fears the worst.

This book was soooo repetitive. The descriptions of Erika worrying about how messed up Liam was really insisted upon themselves which for me made the twist incredibly obvious. There was no build up at all because I was expecting the ending and it felt like wading through a bunch of unnecessary worrying to get to it.

I always find McFadden’s writing style kind of addictive in that the pages fly by and she is really good at building suspense. I definitely needed there to be more to this book though. It felt like it lacked true substance, especially compared to some of her other thrillers.

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Book Review, Fiction

Tin Man by Sarah Windman ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Fiction

What a heart-wrenchingly beautiful book. Tin Man has been sitting on my shelf for literal years and I’m so glad I finally picked it up. This little novel tells the story of Ellis and Michael, their brief romance and their lasting friendship, as well as their relationship with Annie who becomes Ellis’s wife. The story is split into different timelines and we know that something causes a rift between them.

I think it’s best to go into this book blind and it’s hard to talk about without giving anything away. This is such a beautiful depiction of the relationships between these three individuals and a powerful exploration of the layers to their lives that they may not even share with those closest to them.

The way that dialogue was written in this story was so simple and unassuming, yet packed such a punch and really underscored the way that characters were thinking and feeling. Prepare to feel all the emotions if you pick this one up, and to marvel at the beauty of the writing.

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