Recent Updates and Currently Reading | August 23

It's been quite a while since my last update. The life struggle is real right now. During my unfortunate but necessary hiatus, I've spent a lot of time thinking about my priorities and what can/needs to give in regards to reading and blogging and social media.

One change I think is finally permanent is no more review requests. I've said this in the past but have opened back up once I felt caught up and less committed. I've come to realize that I say yes when things are OK but those commitments come due in the future whether things are OK or not. So moving forward my only review copies will likely be women horror authors and those requests will go through the Ladies of Horror Fiction channels.

This past May I treated myself to a month of only personal reads and it was the best. That's really all I want from here on out.

Posted Since Last Update

Book Review | Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

Book Review | Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall

Book Review | Benny Rose, the Cannibal King by Hailey Piper

Finished Reading

I finished reading The Bright Lands by John Fram. Unfortunately it didn't really work for me.  ⭐⭐★★★

I recently read The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. I struggled with this one, too, and I'm really bummed about it. I struggled writing my review, too, because I feel like my current frame of mind may have affected my ability to give this book the attention it needed. ⭐⭐⭐★★

I also read Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones. I had more luck with this one!  ⭐⭐⭐⭐★

I started reading the Jessica Jones series that ran from 2016-2018. I'm enjoying it.

Currently Reading

 

I'm currently listening to The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo and loving it!

I'm also enjoying the stories in All That's Fair by S.H. Cooper!

I'm starting Dread Nation by Justina Ireland today as a buddy read with the Ladies of Horror Fiction team.

I will try to share the books I've bought and received recently as well as what I've been watching lately in my next update.

So what about you? Let me know what you're reading (or watching) this week or leave me some links!

---

This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Book Review | Benny Rose, the Cannibal King by Hailey Piper

Benny Rose, the Cannibal King is a horror novella by Hailey Piper.

Blackwood, Vermont has one legend to its name—Benny Rose, the Cannibal King. Every local kid knows him and tells his stories, especially on Halloween. When a new girl moves to town in the autumn of 1987, the legend inspires high school junior Desiree St. Fleur and her friends to pull a Benny Rose-themed prank. A few laughs and screams, and they’ll have a Happy Halloween.

But a vicious storm crashes into Blackwood and interrupts the festivities. Soon the girls find themselves trapped and hunted in a strange neighborhood where no one will help them. There’s nothing made-up about Benny Rose this Halloween night. The truth is coming, and it's hungry.

Book 3 in the Rewind-or-Die series: imagine your local movie rental store back in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, remember all those fantastic covers. Remember taking those movies home and watching in awe as the stories unfolded in nasty rainbows of gore, remember the atmosphere and textures. Remember the blood.

Benny Rose is another catch up review for me. It's been a couple of months since I read it, but I'm still happy to sing its praises.

Benny Rose is part of Unnerving's Rewind or Die series which I'm assuming are all written to play out like horror movies. This is the first of the Rewind or Die line that I've read, but I will definitely be picking up the rest of them.

Benny Rose is a gory, coming of age horror centered around an urban legend and a group of girls on Halloween. Is there a better way to spend your evening?

You don't need to wait until October to read this one, but if you haven't read it by the time October rolls around, it really is the perfect book to read for the Halloween season.

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

4/5 stars

Book Review | Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall

Rules for Vanishing is a young adult horror novel by Kate Alice Marshall.

In the faux-documentary style of The Blair Witch Project comes the campfire story of a missing girl, a vengeful ghost, and the girl who is determined to find her sister--at all costs.

Once a year, the path appears in the forest and Lucy Gallows beckons. Who is brave enough to find her--and who won't make it out of the woods?

It's been exactly one year since Sara's sister, Becca, disappeared, and high school life has far from settled back to normal. With her sister gone, Sara doesn't know whether her former friends no longer like her...or are scared of her, and the days of eating alone at lunch have started to blend together. When a mysterious text message invites Sara and her estranged friends to "play the game" and find local ghost legend Lucy Gallows, Sara is sure this is the only way to find Becca--before she's lost forever. And even though she's hardly spoken with them for a year, Sara finds herself deep in the darkness of the forest, her friends--and their cameras--following her down the path. Together, they will have to draw on all of their strengths to survive. The road is rarely forgiving, and no one will be the same on the other side.

I'm writing this review three months after having read Rules for Vanishing. Sometimes this can be a tough thing to do, but sometimes it helps me narrow down the things that really struck me and stayed with me.

In reading Rules for Vanishing, I was most excited for the creepy horrors. It reminded me a lot of when I read Kim Liggett's The Last Harvest. I love finding truly horrific scenes in a young adult book.

I also remember the ending being left up to interpretation. There was a definite ending, but it was an ambiguous one. Rules for Vanishing would make an excellent book club read. I wish I had been buddy reading it when I read it!

Rules for Vanishing is going on my list of automatic young adult horror recommendations. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, I recommend you pick it up!

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫
4.5/5 stars