Author: Schizanthus Nerd

Atlas of Abandoned Places – Oliver Smith

To step into an abandoned place is to cross a kind of threshold into the past – to time travel from the present day to the instant that people departed.

I love abandoned places photography. I enjoy poring over the photos for evidence of the lives of the people who used to inhabit the spaces. There always seems to be a haunted beauty attached to these places, as they gradually erode and nature reclaims them.

I’ve come to expect books about abandoned places to showcase a photographer’s favourite sites. This is the first abandoned places book I’ve read that’s been written by a travel writer. The images are stock photos, which meant I didn’t get get to feel like I was tagging along with someone who may have had to climb fences and find ways to get into buildings undetected. However, it also meant that, rather than the purple prose I’m used to reading in abandoned places books, the information that’s presented here captured my attention just as much as the photography.

Separated into parts by geography – Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean, the Middle East and the Caucasus, Asia, Oceania and Africa – this book explores fifty abandoned places, from trains, palaces and a theme park to entire towns. Each four page entry contains photos and a map, along with information about the history, current state and any future plans for the site.

I most want to explore:

  • The Paris Catacombs, not the 1.6km (1 mile) tourist attraction but the network an area of about 320km (200 miles) that haven’t been entirely mapped yet. I want to see the places that remain undiscovered and unmarked by graffiti.
  • City Hall Station, New York.

Two hundred policemen were called to hold back the curious crowds, and the Mayor of New York took the controls of the inaugural train. He had so much fun he refused to hand them back to the driver.

  • Ciudad Perdida (meaning ‘Lost City’), Colombia. You’ll need to hike for four days to get there but the journey sounds as amazing as the destination.

Organized tours see participants traversing rushing rivers on rope bridges, passing waterfalls where hummingbirds dart through the humid air, and sleeping in hammocks listening to the night-time symphony of the forest.

  • Aniva Lighthouse, at the tip of Sakhalin, Russia. It’s desolate and remote, the perfect place to get lost in a book.
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There’s a lot of very interesting information in this book. I’m always on the lookout for fun facts and all things strange and unusual. I found those here too.

For £99, you can buy your very own knighthood. It’s for Sealand, a country that no others recognise, but it’s probably your only chance to be knighted.

Bodie in California is a typo. It’s named after W.S. Bodey, a prospector from New York. If you visit, fair warning: don’t souvenir any trinkets you come across.

‘The Curse of Bodie’ goes that objects stolen from the ghost town have brought tragedy and even death to their new homes. Items are still regularly returned to Bodie in the post, with notes of repentance from sorry thieves.

The grand opening of the Orpheum Theatre in New Bedford, Massachusetts happened the day the Titanic sank.

New York’s “City Hall Station provided the inspiration for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ lair.”

For places that seem lifeless, their lesson is that – in some form or other – life goes on.

Thank you so much to Hachette Australia for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Explore the wonders that the world forgot with award-winning travel writer Oliver Smith – from breathtaking buildings with a dark past to decaying reminders of more troubled times.

The globe is littered with forgotten monuments, their beauty matched only by the secrets of their past.

A glorious palace lies abandoned by a fallen dictator. A grand monument to communism sits forgotten atop a mountain. Two never-launched space shuttles slowly crumble, left to rot in the middle of the desert. Explore these and many more of the world’s lost wonders in this atlas like no other.

With remarkable stories, bespoke maps and stunning photography of fifty forsaken sites, Atlas of Abandoned Places travels the world beneath the surface; the sites with stories to tell, the ones you won’t find in any guidebook.

Award-winning travel writer Oliver Smith is your guide on a long-lost path, shining a light on the places that the world forgot.

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Fairy Tale – Stephen King

Seventeen year old Charlie Reade didn’t set out to be a hero. He was just walking past Psycho House when he heard Radar barking. This leads to Charlie getting to know crotchety Mr Bowditch, a man with unexplained wealth and a shed with a padlock on the door.

‘I can’t talk about it now, Charlie, and you must not talk about it to anybody. Anybody. The consequences… I can’t even imagine. Promise me.’

After spending about a third of the book building a tenuous relationship with the declining Bowditch, we follow Radar and her new person down a well of the worlds and into the Other. All is not well in this fairytale land: a greying population, giants who “never sing when you want them to” and a Big Bad.

I was invested in the first third of the book, when the focus was on the relationship between Charlie and Mr Bowditch. While the world I explored alongside Charlie and Radar intrigued me, especially the haunted city, it didn’t captivate me like I’d hoped. I had a soft spot for Dora, although I didn’t feel like I really got to know the inhabitants of Empis. Much of the story was predictable but I enjoyed the ride.

As far as I’m concerned, the smartest choice Stephen King made when he was writing this book was making Radar a senior dog. I’m all for the cuteness of puppies, with their out of proportion feet and ears they haven’t grown into yet, but there’s something extra special about geriatric dogs. Their puppy soul doesn’t match their body’s limitations. Their grey mooshes are adorable. They’re quite content lazing on the couch with you for hours on end. They’re master manipulators, cajoling you into doing anything their little heart desires just by giving you one of their trademark looks.

Needless to say, I fell in love with Radar immediately and I broke my rule of not sneaking a peek at the final pages because I was so concerned for her welfare. I had to know whether I needed to prepare myself for the worst or if I could relax, knowing she would survive her time being written in the King-dom. Radar now owns a piece of my heart.

Here is something I learned in Empis: good people shine brighter in dark times.

Thank you so much to Hachette Australia for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen year old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher – for their world or ours. 

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mum was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself – and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from it. 

Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world.

King’s storytelling in Fairy Tale soars. This is a magnificent and terrifying tale about another world than ours, in which good is pitted against overwhelming evil, and a heroic boy – and his dog – must lead the battle.

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The Mountain in the Sea – Ray Nayler

“The great and terrible thing about humankind is simply this: we will always do what we are capable of.”

Ha has been waiting her entire life for this opportunity. She’s secured a research position with DIANIMA, pioneers in the field of artificial intelligence, to study the octopuses of Con Dao.

There had been tales for generations of the monster. Maybe for as long as people had lived on the archipelago. Myths to scare children: shadows and drownings, shapes seen on the shore. But now everyone came to believe the stories.

If a story can make me suspend my disbelief, then it’s usually a winner. That was my hope going into this read. This book didn’t do that. What it did was take my initial fascination and turn it into a belief so solid that I wouldn’t be surprised if findings similar to Ha’s are published in a scientific journal in the not too distant future.

While this is a book of fiction, it quickly became clear how much research went into its creation. The author takes what it currently known about consciousness and communication and extrapolates, coming up with a series of outcomes that had me thinking in terms of when, not if. I was anticipating this book would be an entertaining read. I wasn’t expecting it to be so thought provoking or for its conclusions to feel so plausible.

I was invested in the characters. I initially chuckled at the way some of security specialist Altantsetseg’s words were translated, until I understood the why. Then I sought to learn more about their past. I loved Ha’s inquiring mind and sensitive approach to her work.

But this book asks the question: What if? What if a species of octopus emerged that attained longevity, intergenerational exchange, sociality? What if, unknown to us, a species already has? Then what?

I enjoyed anticipating how Rustem and Eiko’s stories would intersect with those of the characters I met on Con Dao. I decided early on that I didn’t trust Dr Arnkatla Mínervudóttir-Chan but wondered if she’d prove me wrong. The depth of Evrim’s humanity made them my favourite character. Shapesinger made me want to read every book the author mentioned in their acknowledgments.

Even though I don’t have a scientific background, I had no trouble understanding the concepts that were explored in this book. It made me think about consciousness, communication and connection in ways I haven’t previously. It hooked me early on and I’m still thinking about it days after finishing it. This is undoubtedly going to be one of my favourite reads of the year.

“And when the time comes, do what is right.”

Thank you so much to Hachette Australia for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

There’s something in the water of Con Dao. 
To the locals, a monster. 
To the corporate owners of the island, an opportunity.  
To the team of three sent to study and protect, a revelation. 

Their minds are unlike ours. 
Their bodies are malleable, transformable, shifting. 
They can communicate. 
And they want us to leave.

When pioneering marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen is offered the chance to travel to the remote Con Dao Archipelago to investigate a highly intelligent, dangerous octopus species, she doesn’t pause long enough to look at the fine print.

DIANIMA – a transnational tech corporation best known for its groundbreaking work in artificial intelligence – has purchased the islands, evacuated their population and sealed the archipelago off from the world so that Nguyen can focus on her research.

But the stakes are high: the octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence and there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of their advancements. And as Dr. Nguyen struggles to communicate with the newly discovered species, forces larger than DIANIMA close in to seize the octopuses for themselves.

But no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it.

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Close to Midnight – Mark Morris (editor)

Another day, another anthology I simply had to read because it includes a story by Seanan McGuire.

Wolves by Rio Youers

No one else can see the wolves that have begun appearing to Kieran.

“What is this?”

“The way forward,” Kieran replied.

Best Safe Life For You by Muriel Gray

Andy is certain he’s found the best home security money can buy and it only costs £5 a month.

“Used to be a good neighbourhood this. You let things run wild, well then.”

Souvenirs by Sharon Gosling

There’s only one thing Reg wants to take with him to Wisteria Lodge.

“It was there,” he said. “It was always there.”

The Operated by Ramsey Campbell

Beal has just received some bad news when someone offers him a solution.

“I’m going to be fixed.”

In the Wabe by Alison Littlewood

Vivian has been missing for three years. Her mother is determined to find her.

What do you eat under there?

Years. They taste just like milk.

I Promise by Conrad Williams

Alex’s father may have died but he’s not gone.

“Dad … what are you doing here?”

Flat 19 by Jenn Ashworth

Eve needs a break from her life. W can help.

“And where will I go, while it all … happens?”

The Forbidden Sandwich by Carl Tait

If you believe the story the tour guide told Dr Melgar, when you add a certain ingredient to a tomato sandwich, you will become brilliant. For a time.

“I keep worrying they will serve the Forbidden Sandwich.”

Autumn Sugar by Philip Fracassi

The smell of burning autumn leaves brings back fond childhood memories for Charles.

“I thought you finished the leaves yesterday.”

Collagen by Seanan McGuire

Our quest to defy our age ultimately leads to our undoing.

We had so many warnings. Warning after warning, and we ignored them all, because that’s what people do.

Remains by Charlie Hughes

The Railwayman visits her station over and over again.

The Railwayman wants my remains.

The Floor is Lava by Brian Keene

Mark knows Marsha is right when she urges him to go to the doctor.

But that fear was nothing compared to the terror and panic he’d been experiencing for the last half hour.

Ever since the bathroom floor had become lava.

The True Colour of Blood by Stephen Laws

His father has something important to tell him about their bloodline.

“It’s the blood, boy. It’s all about the blood.”

The Nine of Diamonds by Carole Johnstone

Annie really needs this job.

“Have you ever just wanted to walk up to someone and say I curse you?”

Room For the Night by Jonathan Janz

Mr Nelson is paying Stu to stay one night, alone, in his bedroom. It sounds like easy money.

“That’s when the trouble always begins.”

Welcome to the Lodge by Alison Moore

Helena is about to spend her first night at a sleep clinic.

“Does everyone here suffer from nightmares?” he asked.

“Everyone. It’s what we do.”

Going Home by Evelyn Teng

Isla’s parents made a really big mistake. Now they’re trying to fix it.

“We made our choice. Now we have to live with it.”

The Spaceman’s Memory Box by Laura Mauro

If you get the blue marble, you have to knock on the Spaceman’s door.

There’s nothing harder to let go of than the thing you almost had

Bags by Steve Rasnic Tem

Hank’s father is dying and it’s up to Hank to clean out his father’s hoard.

“Keep the ones you love close,” he whispered hoarsely. “They’re all you have in the end. To the rest of the world, you’re food.”

Rise Up Together by Adam L.G. Nevill

Mike moved to the seaside town five years ago and since then he’s become old before his time.

“I leave the curtains closed. Never open them at the back. Or the windows. Back is kinda … out of bounds. So please don’t open them.”

While I didn’t personally find any of the stories scary, I enjoyed them. I had four favourites: Jenn Ashworth’s story of a women who gives pieces of herself to the different roles she plays in her life, Carl Tait’s artist struggling to capture the image in his head on canvas, Seanan McGuire unravelling the cause of humanity’s unravelling and Charlie Hughes’ story of a killer getting rid of the evidence of his crime.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for the opportunity to read this anthology.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Close to Midnight is the third volume in an annual, non-themed horror series of entirely original stories, showcasing the very best short fiction that the genre has to offer, and edited by Mark Morris. This new anthology contains 20 original horror stories, 16 of which have been commissioned from some of the top names in the genre, and 4 of which have been selected from the 100’s of stories sent to Flame Tree during a 2 week open submissions window.

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Ghostwritten – Ronald Malfi

In the beginning of The Neverending Story movie, the bookseller tells Bastian that the books he reads are safe. The books you’ll encounter in the four novellas that comprise Ghostwritten are most certainly not safe.

The Skin of Her Teeth

Gloria’s client, Davis McElroy, has been adapting a bestseller into a screenplay. He’s usually reliable but he’s missed his deadline and it’s up to Gloria to salvage the deal. This book doesn’t like change.

“The simplest thing,” Finter said, “is to give it what it wants.”

The Dark Brothers’ Last Ride

Danny and Tommy Drake have been hired to deliver a package. There are specific rules they need to follow:

  • Don’t open the briefcase.
  • Don’t touch the contents of the briefcase.
  • Follow the route that has been mapped out by the client to get to the drop off location.
  • Ignore anyone who asks to see the book.

The rules are very important. This book is out of this world.

“How can a book be dangerous?”

“Because they contain all the powers of the universe.”

This Book Belongs to Olo

Olo is having a birthday. He will be ten years old. At his party there will be cake, games, prizes and surprises. This book has no words.

“Well, everybody knows how to play hide and seek, I think,” said the girl. “It’s just that, it’s kind of a baby game.”

“Not the way I play,” he said, then tugged the clown mask back down over his face.

The Story

Grady is determined to figure out what story Taryn was working on when she died. This book is Choose Your Own Adventure.

You have been approved to read the Story.

The four novellas have common themes but there are other connections to be found between them. Your attention to detail will be rewarded and I expect a reread will help me discover crossovers I missed the first time around.

It’s difficult for me to choose a favourite story but I definitely had a favourite character, chronically lonely but ever enthusiastic Olo. I’m always a sucker for books about books and here I was treated to four compelling reads. This may only be my second read by this author but Ghostwritten has confirmed my suspicions that I’ve been missing out on something special. I have lots of catching up to do.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

From the bestselling author of Come with Me, four standalone horror novellas set in a shared universe!

In The Skin of Her Teeth, a cursed novel drives people to their deaths. 

A delivery job turns deadly in The Dark Brothers’ Last Ride. 

This Book Belongs to Olo sees a child wielding dangerous control over an unusual pop-up book. 

A choose your own adventure game spirals into an uncanny reality in The Story. 

Full of creepy, page-turning suspense, these collected novellas are all about books, stories, and manuscripts. The written word has never had sharper teeth…

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Everything Is OK – Debbie Tung

As far as I can tell, Debbie Tung’s Quiet Girl in a Noisy World and Book Love were essentially her way of not so subtly telling me she’s been stalking me for my entire adult life. She tried to throw me off the trail by focusing on the ‘aww, aren’t they adorable?’ relationship she and Jason have in Happily Ever After & Everything In Between. Now, in her fourth graphic novel, Debbie takes a deep dive into my mental health.

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From telling people you’re fine when you’re anything but to sleepless nights spent questioning every decision you’ve ever made, Debbie speaks honestly about mental health. Depression. Anxiety. Panic attacks. Suicidal ideation. You not only hear the thoughts that accompany them, you see what they feel like.

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Sometimes just knowing you’re not alone is enough and that’s what this graphic novel does. Debbie’s story acknowledges the darkness but also provides hope.

Asking for help was the most courageous thing I ever did.

It meant that I refused to give up and I wanted to give myself a chance to heal.

It’s one thing to know the types of things that can have a positive impact on your mental health – counselling, self care, celebrating the small wins, gratitude, mindfulness – but hearing how those strategies have helped someone with lived experience gives them more weight.

I’m not an artist so can’t explain this very well but some art feels lofty and unapproachable to me, like I’m being kept at arm’s length. Debbie’s style, though, feels relatable and down to earth. She draws me in with her art and her words.

One thing I really loved about this graphic novel was the use of blue throughout. It’s such an appropriate choice given the subject matter and the muted tones somehow both set the tone and made the content feel non-threatening. The bursts of colour, when they did make an appearance, had a greater impact.

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Thank you so much to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Everything Is OK is the story of Debbie Tung’s struggle with anxiety and her experience with depression. She shares what it’s like navigating life, overthinking every possible worst-case scenario, and constantly feeling like all hope is lost.

The book explores her journey to understanding the importance of mental health in her day-to-day life and how she learns to embrace the highs and lows when things feel out of control. Debbie opens up about deeply personal issues and the winding road to recovery, discovers the value of self-love, and rebuilds a more mindful relationship with her mental health.

In this graphic memoir, Debbie aims to provide positive and comforting messages to anyone who is facing similar difficulties or is just trying to get through a tough time in life. She hopes to encourage readers to be kinder to themselves, to know that they are not alone, and that it’s okay to be vulnerable because they are not defined by their mental health struggles. The dark clouds won’t be there forever. Everything will turn out all right.

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Cities of the Dead – Yolanda Zappaterra

I inherited my Nan’s fascination for cemeteries. She instilled in me a reverence for the people whose tombstones I was reading. Horror movies gave me my dread/hope that one day I’ll witness a hand rising from a grave or hear some grave bells ringing.

This book introduces you to a selection of beautiful cemeteries from around the world. For some, their beauty lies in their location, overlooking the ocean or surrounded by trees. Some hold unique cultural or historical significance. Many are the final resting place of people who found fame in life.

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Bonaventure (meaning ‘Good Fortune’) Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia

Each entry includes the history of the cemetery and photos that made me want to visit most of them, but there are also tales of the horror of being buried alive and bodysnatching. If you know me, you know I love fun facts. This book has plenty. Some of my favourites are:

🪦 The headstone of Susan B. Anthony is covered with plexiglass around election time because there’s a tradition of people placing their ‘I Voted’ stickers on it.

🪦 The Sophie Calle installation at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York is a “twenty-five-year artwork entitled Here Lie the Secrets of the Visitors of Green-Wood Cemetery in which people can write down their thoughts or secrets and place them in a white marble ‘tombstone’.”

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Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York

🪦 During summer, movies screenings are held on the Douglas Fairbanks Lawn at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Movies shown there include Night of the Living Dead.

🪦 Amongst the tombstones in Okunoin Cemetery, Mount Kōya, Japan, you’ll see some more unusual memorials:

a giant termite’s nest that acts as a pest control company’s memorial to all the termites their products have exterminated. Puffer fish that have fallen foul of chefs’ knives, a giant coffee cup, a large space rocket erected by aerospace company ShinMaywa Industries and memorials to the staff of companies such as Nissan, Toyota and Kirin beer all form part of the curious mix.

If you’re superstitious, you may want to avoid this cemetery all together.

Nearby, housed in a small wooden cage near the Gobyobashi Bridge, the equally curious Miroku Stone supposedly weighs one’s sins as you try to lift it from a lower to an upper platform, but more scary is the Sugatami-no-Ido, or Well of Reflections, found just beyond the Nakanohashi Bridge, close to the shrine to the bodhisattva Asekaki Jizo. Legend has it that if you look into this tiny wooden well but don’t see your reflection, you’re fated to die within three years. Probably best to stay on the safe side and avoid it – which might also be good advice for the Zenni Jochi stone memorial to a Buddhist nun of which it is said, if you place your ear you can hear the cries of people in Hell.

Naturally, this is the cemetery I most want to explore.

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Okopowa Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw, Poland

I found the section at the end of the book that explored symbolism in cemeteries particularly interesting.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Frances Lincoln, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Cities of the Dead takes us on a tour of memorial sites, ranging from monastic settlements to grand cathedrals, Shinto shrines to Gothic chapels, tombs and crypts. Enjoy tales of myths and monsters, grave-robbers, pilgrimages, spiritual retreats, remembrance and community. Marvel in cemeteries with a hundred thousand to a handful of graves which feature famous headstones, weeping angels, ocean views, woodlands, thousands of glowing lanterns and a tomb of poets.

From London’s famous Highgate Cemetery, which houses famous names from Karl Marx to Malcolm McLaren, George Eliot to Christina Rosetti, to Hawaii’s breathtaking Valley of the Temples, this book spans the globe to bring you the most fascinating, intriguing and evocative cemeteries across cultures and continents.

Together with evocative images, the stories behind these notable burial sites bring these sanctuaries to life, detailing the features that make them special, highlighting both similarities and differences between time periods, religions and cultures, and showing how cemeteries are about and for the living as much as the dead.

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The Twig Man – Sana Rasoul

Spoilers Ahead! (marked in purple)

Ari’s parents think Lana ran away but Ari knows better: the Twig Man took her.

Legend says if you wander too far into the woods, he’ll snatch you with his roots and drag you into his lair.

Lana has been missing for a year but Ari hasn’t given up hope. Accompanied by Timmy, a new friend who also believes in the Twig Man, Ari braves the woods to save his sister.

With plenty of screaming and a creepy location, not to mention the potentially true urban legend, this book would have scared me as a kid. It wouldn’t have helped that pretty much everywhere Ari turns, he’s being watched by animals with white eyes.

I figured out Timmy’s story before it was explained but this would have blindsided me had I read this as a kid.

I absolutely loved that there was a glossary of Kurdish words after the story.

I was left with some unanswered questions, mostly relating to the people I met near the end of the book. Did the people who were missing age while they were with the Twig Man? How are they going to explain where they’ve been to the police? Given the length of time some of them have been missing, will their parents even still be alive? How are they going to adapt to a world that has changed so much in their absence?

“Beware the Twig Man, the Twig Man’s hex. Beware the Twig Man, or you’ll be NEXT!”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hashtag Press for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Beware the Twig Man, the Twig Man’s hex. Beware the Twig Man, or you’ll be NEXT!   

It’s been a year since nearly-twelve-year-old Ari’s older sister, Lana, ran away.

Except Ari knows what really happened.

She was taken by the Twig Man, the creepy monster that’s haunted the woods for one hundred years. 

No one else will listen, so it’s down to Ari to save his sister.

But he had better hurry, as Ari finds himself next on the Twig Man’s list…

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Wolf Girl #7: Crash Course – Anh Do

Illustrations – Lachlan Creagh

Gwen and her pack are travelling by train to Tunny, where her parents were last seen. On their way, Gwen finally gets to see her sister, albeit briefly.

Their arrival at Tunny attracts plenty of attention and it isn’t long before Gwen and the dogs wander into a crossover with the characters from the Rise of the Mythix series.

This series started out with so much promise but it’s frustrating me now. Gwen travels all over the place but she’s not really getting anywhere. Her lost family are dangled in front of her, the hoped for reunion is thwarted, over and over again.

Crossovers can be fun when they make sense. Your favourite characters are placed in situations you wouldn’t usually find them in and their interactions with characters from other series can show you aspects of their personality you didn’t know existed. A crossover done well can enrich both series. Crossovers in Anh Do’s books have been feeling like advertisements for quite a while now.

Stubborn hope has kept me here this long. I want to be there for the payoff. The stakes remain high, there are plenty of action scenes and the target audience are probably still loving this series. I’m just looking for the heart that was there in the beginning, in the time before crossovers.

Multiple animals were harmed in the pages of this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

As the train Wolf Girl is driving hurtles towards the locked gates of an enemy city, the last thing Gwen expects to see out the window is her long lost sister!

Soon the pack are on an epic chase, encountering deadly enemies and plenty of prehistoric surprises.

But just when things seem most dire, help arrives in an unexpected form!

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Cackle – Rachel Harrison

WELCOME TO ROWAN, AMERICA’S BEST-KEPT SECRET.

Annie is newly thirty and newly single when she moves to Rowan. Recently dumped by her long term boyfriend/best friend, Annie is on her own for the first time and she’s not a fan. When she’s not teaching “hormone-addled, angst-driven evil meat sticks”, she’s hitting the bottle.

It isn’t long before Annie meets Sophie, who’s beautiful and self-assured. The people of Rowan behave differently when Sophie is around, though. It’s almost as if they’re scared of her.

“Want me to curse them for you?”

“Sure,” I say.

“Done.”

Annie loves the attention and care that Sophie lavishes on her but it made me feel claustrophobic. The relationships in this book (Annie and Sam, Annie and Sophie) are all kinds of messed up. It’s no coincidence that the first movie Sophie watches with Annie is Gaslight.

I wanted Sophie’s wardrobe and wouldn’t have said no to her home cooking but wasn’t a fan of her. To be fair, she does want Bruce to win in Jaws so she can’t be all bad, but I don’t know if I can trust someone who hates unicorns. I’m all for having the confidence to be who you truly are but if claiming your power results in an entire township being terrified of you, then that cheapens it for me.

My favourite character, Ralph, had no lines but he made up for it in personality. I’m a sucker for spiders who can pull off wearing a top hat, especially when they also have a great smile.

Overall, this was a lighter read than I was expecting but that’s not to say there weren’t some memorable lines:

My insecurity returns like a villain in a sequel. The same but worse.

I embrace the next morning with all the enthusiasm of a goat entering Jurassic Park.

Readers with emetophobia may have trouble with some scenes.

NOW LEAVING ROWAN. KEEP OUR SECRET.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

All her life, Annie has played it nice and safe. After being unceremoniously dumped by her long-time boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start. She accepts a teaching job that moves her from Manhattan to a small village upstate. Her new home is picturesque and perfect. The people are all friendly and warm. Her new apartment is lovely too, minus the oddly persistent spider infestation.

Then Annie meets Sophie. Beautiful, charming, magnetic Sophie, who takes a special interest in Annie, who wants to be her friend. More importantly, she wants Annie to stop apologising and start living for herself. That’s how Sophie lives. Annie can’t help but gravitate toward the self-possessed Sophie, wanting to spend more and more time with her, despite the fact that the rest of the town seems… a little afraid of her. And, okay. Sophie’s appearance is uncanny and ageless, her mansion in the middle of the woods feels a little unearthly, and she does seem to wield a certain power… but she couldn’t be… could she?

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