What Have You Read - 2020

[WendyB]

Krystal wrote: "WendyB wrote: "

Werewolves and vampires and famous authors, oh my!"

This one sounds fantastic!"

I really really liked it. It had a great story and was very well written.

[Erin]

The Last Widow

Another solid Will Trent novel.

[Amanda]

I read the Bane County series and loved it. If you love werewolf stories then these are a must read.

[Marie]

I read this book and it was freaking awesome! This is going to be one of my top horror reads for 2020!

by Scott Thomas

[Erin]

Glad you liked it!

[Erin]

Lock Every Door

First book by this author, I liked it.

[Alan]

Erin wrote: "Lock Every Door

First book by this author, I liked it."

Try The Last Time I Lied. It's even better.

[Krystal]

I finished a re-read of and it was as good as I remembered. I love how bizarre it gets. The Downside really fascinates me.

My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Erin]

Alan wrote: "Erin wrote: "Lock Every Door

First book by this author, I liked it."

Try The Last Time I Lied. It's even better."

I will at some point.

[Alan]

My 200th book read thus far this year, and wow, what a 200th book. I highly recommend it especially for fans of Aliens and Event Horizon.

[Char]

I just finished . It was fab!

[Ctgt]

Just finished Out Behind the Barn which was fantastic and Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories which had some good stories and some so-so.

[Randy]

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Easy read but a complex novel that merges Gothic, Gothic romance, fairy tale, Weird Tale, social commentary -- specifically about the place of women in society -- with a coming-of-age story. Takes its time coming to a boil, but I thought it the best novel I've read this year.

[Char]

Randy wrote: "Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Easy read but a complex novel that merges Gothic, Gothic romance, fairy tale, Weird Tale, social commentary -- specifically ..."

Glad to hear that, Randy! I have it coming up in the next few weeks, I hope.

[Alan]

The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda
After going through so many of today's popular thrillers that are just OK, this one absolutely blew me away. The story just breezed along, full of tension and more twists than a book should have and had me dying to reach to the end to know how it all wrapped up because it was so good. Glad I finally broke down and got it from the library.

[Marie]

Another awesome read was this book:

Until Summer Comes Around by Glenn Rolfe

[Erin]

Suicide Forest

I didn't care for the writing style.

[Rachel]

[Christopher]

Scream Quietly: The Best of Charles L. Grant is a 450-page retrospective of Grant’s finest achievements in short fiction, and as such I’d say it’s nigh-on indispensable. I did have some problems with the book, however. Like most such massive collections, it could have been shorter—at least a half-dozen stories here are slight and could easily have been removed. The tributes to Grant from other writers, while heartfelt, are undistinguished and do nothing for the book other than adding some famous names (King, Straub) to the Table of Contents. Finally, I found the altering of Grant’s spellings to their British equivalents (“kerb,” “tyres,” etc.) to be presumptuous and distracting. I know that PS is a British publisher, but Grant was as distinctly American a writer as Ernest Hemingway or Ray Bradbury, and using British spellings for his work is just wrong.

That said, many of these stories are quite wonderful, and in most ways this is a fine, fitting tribute to a sadly under-appreciated writer.

[Erin]

Rachel wrote: ""

Did you like it?

[Monica]

I just finished my re read of and enjoyed it again. Jonathan Janz can write really good action scenes.

[David]

I just finished Let the Right One In John Ajvide Lindqvist
I thought it was very good!

[Erin]

Something in the Water

I did not like it at all.

[Marie]

- this was a good creepy book by Iain Rob Wright

[Frances]

I’ve Put off reading this for too long. Now is the perfect month. 🎃

[Catherine]

Just finished the stunning Second Lives by P.D. Cacek Absolutely loved this and looking forward to the sequel - Second Chances - which comes out in November

[Char]

Frances wrote: " I’ve Put off reading this for too long. Now is the perfect month. 🎃"

I ADORE the opening paragraphs of this of THoHH. I hope you love the book as much as I do!

I finished Halloween Season by Lucy Snyder and this one is perfect for October reading. I gave it all the stars!

I also finished which also was excellent.

[Krystal]

I finally finished Creed, which so freaking random and definitely more funny than scary. It's only my second Herbert and it was so different from the carnage of The Rats. I think I prefer the carnage, but I really loved the writing, and the character of Creed. He's such a piece of crap haha.

My full review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Frances]

Char wrote: "Frances wrote: " I’ve Put off reading this for too long. Now is the perfect month. 🎃"

I ADORE the opening paragraphs of this of THoHH. I hope you love t..."

Yes! The opening paragraph! I highlighted it even!!! It’s brilliant! I can’t wait to use it sometime and come off sounding intelligent... but like a ghoul. Ha ha.

[Allen]

Wild Things Will Roam....fantasy horror blend from Episodic Reading. By author KM West. They release content in serialized episodes and the finale launches this Friday!

[Rachel]

Erin wrote: "Did you like it?"

yeah, i did. the atmosphere of the whole thing was really good. i enjoyed that a lot. it also has pretty high rereadability so i'm looking forward to reading it again and seeing what i might've missed the first time around. :)

[Marie]

I finished this one:

The Essential Sick Stuff by Ronald Kelly

and

Scalp by Carver Pike

[Erin]

The Hunting Party


I liked it, especially guessing who died and who was involved.

[Christopher]

More Stories from the Twilight Zone
Considering that this anthology was edited by Rod Serling’s widow, I’m actually shocked at how bad most of the stories are. This atrocious book should never have been published.

[Catherine]

A Killing FireFaye Snowden This one really keeps you guessing - a mystery, crime, psychological ghostly horror story combined. Loved it!

[Kasia]

Erin wrote: "The Hunting Party


I liked it, especially guessing who died and who was involved."

It was a hoot, oddly enough her new book seems to follow a very similar formula, looking forward to it too, trying to read books I already bought right now.

[Frances]

. Awesome book! Ray Bradbury is not just a master storyteller. but he’s an impressive poet too.

[Erin]

Kasia wrote: "Erin wrote: "The Hunting Party


I liked it, especially guessing who died and who was involved."

It was a hoot, oddly enough her new book seems to follow a very similar formula, lo..."

I hear it's like Agatha Christie style.

[Erin]

Voices in the Snow

Rounded up to 4 stars. Kind of got crazy towards the end but I'm intrigued enough to want to read the second book in the series.

[Christopher]

The Hour Before Dark
An enjoyable tale, if slightly predictable and not remotely “scary”; the prose and characterizations are both first-rate. I do wish, however, that Douglas Clegg could have found a more felicitous phrase for his characters’ childhood memory loss than “brain fart,” which is sufficiently juvenile to have irritated me every time it appeared—and it appears dozens of times.

Still, while I’m not sure this impressed me enough to read any more Clegg, it managed to hold my interest. In these distracted days, that’s saying something.

[Catherine]

Stoker's WildeSteven HopstakenMelissa Prusi

Highly original, well researched, brilliantly executed and with an authentic Victorian flavour. Loved it.

[Marie]

I finished reading quite a few over the last week or so:

The Graveyard Speaks by Hunter Shea

The Haunted Forest Tour by Jeff Strand and James A. Moore

The Horror Collection: Pumpkin Edition by Kevin J. Kennedy

The Darkest Veil by Catherine Cavendish

A True Exorcism: A soul Held Hostage: A Soul held Hostage by Wesley Fox

The Essential Sick Stuff by Ronald Kelly

Inside Perron Manor: Investigating Britain's Most Haunted House by Lee Mountford

and

Haunted: Perron Manor by Lee Mountford

[Krystal]

Okay so yesterday I finished and seriously I need more people to read this trilogy so I can talk about how deliciously bizarre it is. It's become such a strange addiction for me and I'm so sad at the thought that the authors have left this world behind. I still want to know more!

My full review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Char]

Christopher wrote: "
More Stories from the Twilight Zone
Considering that this anthology was edited by Rod Serling’s widow, I’m actually shocked at..."

Wow! That bad?

[Frances]

Dracula. I wanted to know who Dracula really was. After having read it, I can honestly say......that I still know diddly-squat about him (view spoiler)[ Except that it’s true: he doesn’t like garlic, sunlight, holy objects. (hide spoiler)]The book was barely about him. At least I can check it off my bucket list.

[Frances]

Erin wrote: "Kasia wrote: "Erin wrote: "The Hunting Party


I liked it, especially guessing who died and who was involved."

It was a hoot, oddly enough her new book seems to follow a very simil..."

I read somewhere that her next book The Guest List is inspired by And Then There Were None.

[Christopher]

Char wrote: "Christopher wrote: "
More Stories from the Twilight Zone
Considering that this anthology was edited by Rod Serling’s widow, I’m..."

Maybe the worst anthology I’ve ever read, at least from a major press.

[Erin]

Frances wrote: "Erin wrote: "Kasia wrote: "Erin wrote: "The Hunting Party


I liked it, especially guessing who died and who was involved."

It was a hoot, oddly enough her new book seems to follow..."

Yes, I heard it was on the same style as Agatha Christie but didn't know which specific book it was based off of.

[Frances]

https://culturefly.co.uk/book-review-...

@Erin, the link above compares Lucy Foley’s books with And Then There Were None because they are all locked room mysteries. But I was mistaken when I said that Lucy Foley was inspired by the book itself.

I was thinking of One by One. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert.... It was Ruth Ware’s book that was inspired by And Then There Were None.

So sorry about that.

[Erin]

No worries, I haven't read that Ruth Ware book.