Mike Finn > Recent Status Updates

An interesting premise but I'm struggling with the main character. She's supposed to be in her twenties but sounds like a teen.

A debut novel that feels accomplished. I like each sister getting their own point of view - the older sister immeidately after her younger sisters murder and the younger sister immediately before it. Amy Green gives the two of them very different voices. This is amplified by the use of two narrators. I'm settling in to watch the past and the present unfold.

This story keeps pulling me deeper into it. The deeper I go, stronger the sense of threat.

The idea is original credible and disturbing.

The writing is clean, tight and propulsive.

I'd only intended to read a sample chapter today and now I'm at 42% and eager for more.

I looked at how long this book is and thought, "I may be getting too old to invest so much time in a new fantasy world. I've already read too many."

Then I read the first 10% of this one and started to wonder how I could rearrange the next few days to fit more reading in.

I love the depth of the imagining, the control of the pace and the freshness of the main characters.

Over the past seven years, Murderbot has blossomed in my imagination, becoming a permanent part of my mental landscape. What started as an intriguing novella has expanded to become an entire universe and it’s still growing. So I've posted my thoughts on the series and links to my reviews.

https://mikefinnsfiction.com/2025/07/...

Over the past seven years, Murderbot has blossomed in my imagination, becoming a permanent part of my mental landscape. What started as an intriguing novella has expanded to become an entire universe and it’s still growing. So I've posted my thoughts on the series and links to my reviews.

https://mikefinnsfiction.com/2025/07/...

For me, the main appeal of this series is the cadence of Peter Grainger's prose. It's easy on the ear without being bland or simple, like listening to Spanish guitar music that slips into your mind as familiar and stays because it's surprisingly fresh.

The mystery plot is the wrought iron arch the text grows over, elegant and twisty but built to display the characters who drive the narrative.

This isn't working for me. It's trying too hard. The humour feels forced. The biggest problem is that I don't believe in either of the main characters. The DS seems too insecure, too eager to please and too clueless to have reached that rank. I can't get inside his wife's head even though most of her chapters are in the form of an interior monologue. This would probably make good TV but, as a novel, it lacks a spark.

Whimsical and charming but the narration is a little slow.

JUST YOUR STANDARD HAUNTED DOLL DRAMA by Kelley Armstrong - DNF

I abandoned this as soon as I saw that it was about the two characters from Kelley Armstrong's 'Cursed Luck' series. 'Cursed Luck' (2021) is the only Kelley Armstrong book I've ever set aside. It's paranormal romance pap. I didn't want to spend any more time in the company of Kennedy and Aiden both of whom raise my hackles just by existing.

SHOES AS RED AS BLOOD by A. C. Wise ★★★★★
This was wonderful: complex, measured, truthful and engaging. It strips the glamour from fairytales designed as warnings that girls who want more than they've been given will be punished. It showed curses masquerading as promises, delivering punishment and pain as the price of happily ever after. It wasn't strident. It nurtured suspicion into anger and anger into rage.at

DARK CAROUSEL by Joe Hill ★★★★
The story's form and the tone are compelling. They're classic horror - a slasher dynamic with a carousel nightmare twist. The imagery is vivid, the violence is palpable and the outcome is grim. A thin veil of ambiguity substitutes mental illness for malevolent magic, suggesting they may be indistinguishable. But it felt emotionally muted. I couldn't connect with the characters.

I'm enjoying this. It has a very distinctive flavour, delicate without being weak - like white tea. The plot is relatively uncomplicated and the pace of the investigtion is realistically slow, which leaves a lot of room for developing the characters and the small town setting, both of which seem very vivid to me. Most of the important characters are women who know one another well. The way they interact feels real.