Audiobook Review: Black Tide by K.C. Jones
Posted on June 20, 2022 17 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 4 of 5 stars
Genre: Horror
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Macmillan Audio (May 31, 2022)
Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
Author Information: Website | Twitter
A generous helping of cosmic horror with a side of end of the world, K.C. Jones’ Black Tide couldn’t have come at a better time to meet your summer beach reading needs.
In this story we meet Beth, a self-professed trainwreck who has arrived on the Oregon coast to housesit a gorgeous home and look after its owner’s dog, but she’s also mostly there to put some distance between herself and her toxic mother. There, she meets her next-door neighbor Mike, a troubled movie producer who is in town to wind down following the successful completion of his latest film. On the night of the meteor shower, the two of them end up hooking up after a few too many glasses of champagne, and in the morning everything changes.
Beth and Mike wake up to a different world. The sky looks unnaturally dark with strangely shaped clouds, and along the beach they find it littered with mysterious round objects. Like our protagonists, the other locals have come down to the water to marvel at the eerie sight. When the police arrive, they look as worried as everyone else, warning folks not to get too close and to seek shelter and stay indoors. When Beth and Mike try to leave, however, they find that they have misplaced the car keys, leaving them stranded on the dunes as the tides rise and something monstrous emerges.
Think of some of the most nerve-wracking, immediate apocalyptic horror movies you’ve seen, and you can perhaps imagine the tone this sets for Black Tide. Reminiscent of The Mist or Cloverfield, the novel certainly invokes those feelings of dread and helplessness as you witness the world end around you. Everything pretty much unfolds in the span of a day, which makes this story feel even more claustrophobic and urgent. What we’re seeing is merely a small slice of the greater disaster that’s happening everywhere else, through the eyes of just two people, but it’s a device that’s also very effective.
Speaking of which, we have our two main characters, Mike and Beth, who aren’t exactly action hero or heroine material. In a way though, that made the story even better. They’re average people trapped in a chilling, chaotic situation, and you can’t help but wonder if you’d handle it any better if in their shoes. It helped that they were sympathetic protagonists, who had well-written and convincing backstories. Beth is dealing with some deep-rooted issues related to her mother, while Mike is in mourning. The two of them have little in common and neither are in their best state of mind, but they’ve come together by chance nonetheless, and together they’ll have to work together to survive.
Their relationship is also an interesting one. For two people who barely know each other, they have great dynamic and are a treasure trove of memorable quotes. The story is tense and frightening, but it’s also surprisingly humorous at times, which does help to take the edge off, without being inappropriate or pulling you out of the moment. In fact, the author has managed to create a nearly perfect balance, setting a fast pace without skimping on the details. Like I said, it’s an intense novel and it’s plenty scary, which I guess is the whole point, but there definitely a deeper plot to it as well, and it makes you care about what happens to the characters (and the dog).
Bottom line, a great horror read and also an audiobook wonderfully narrated by John Pirhalla and Sophie Amoss, who fully immersed me in Black Tide and just made the time fly by.
Bookshelf Roundup: 06/18/22: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Posted on June 18, 2022 7 Comments
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
Received for Review
My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!
Another short update this week. Kids got out of school this week for the summer and it’s already been exhausting! But the books are still coming in, and first off with thanks to Orbit Books for sending along The Martyr by Anthony Ryan, book two of The Covenant of Steel series.
Up next, with thanks Head of Zeus for an ARC of Lost in Time by A.G. Riddle. I once read this great book by the author called Departure which had these weird freaky Lost vibes, and from its description this sounds like it would be similar in nature except it deals with time travel. I’m definitely intrigued about that big twist they’re teasing.
And finally, with thanks to Tor Books for a finished copy of In the Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan. In case you missed it, I reviewed it earlier this month and really enjoyed it. I think it’s a great start to a promising new series.
Nothing in the digital pile this week, but that’s probably a good thing because the next week’s haul should be pretty large and I’d like to use this much needed downtime to catch up with what’s already in my TBR.
Reviews
A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow (3 of 5 stars)
Outside by Ragnar Jónasson (2 of 5 stars)
What I’ve Been Reading
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read!
Thursday Thriller: Outside by Ragnar Jónasson
Posted on June 16, 2022 18 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Mogsy’s Rating: 2 of 5 stars
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Minotaur Books | Macmillan Audio (June 28, 2022)
Length: 352 pages | 5 hrs and 19 mins
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Four friends go on an holiday to a remote hunting lodge in the Icelandic highlands, and get stuck in a snowstorm. Certainly sounds like a promising start to a Nordic Noir thriller, and I’ve been intrigued by Outside due to my fascination with horror and mystery stories set in cold, isolated places. Unfortunately though, this turned out to be quite the dud.
But first, a bit about the plot. Daniel, Helena, Armann, and Gunnalaugur have known each other since their college days, but while they may call themselves friends, sometimes it doesn’t seem like it. All of them are hiding secrets from each other, from old grudges to petty jealousies, and none of them seem to Gunnalaugur, a strange one whom they seemed to have invited along out of pity. Armann is an entrepreneur who has turned a little tour company he started to a successful enterprise, and wanting to do something nice for his friends, invited them along to a ptarmigan hunt in the Eastern Highlands of Iceland.
Everything is going relatively well until a bad snowstorm rolls in unexpectedly, forcing the hunters to retreat to shelter early, but the problems begin as soon as they arrive at the cabin. First, it’s locked, with the keys stored behind a secured lockbox to which no one knows the code, not even Armann, who is supposed to be their guide. And then, there’s what they find inside the cabin after they break their way inside. What awaited them gave each of the four friends a shock, with a couple of them second guessing their decision to stay in the shelter, but with the frigid temperatures and the storm raging outside, there’s no place else for anyone to go.
A non-story, that’s the best way I can describe Outside. The prose certainly does its best hype up the tensions and excitement on every page, but at the end of the day, there’s no disguising the fact that hardly anything happened. Without spoiling anything, what the four friends encountered would have been considered a rather alarming albeit minor inconvenience to anyone else, providing everyone keeps their cool and aren’t a bunch of incompetent idiots.
To be fair, that’s not to say our characters were all idiots, but they each had their individual hang ups and manufactured dramas which were used in contrived ways to move the story along. The narrative cycles through their four different viewpoints, mainly focusing on their backstories. Normally, this sort of device would work well for me, but in the case of Outside, it fell flat. Namely, it was hard to care about the past when the present was so immediate, and so-called reveals into the characters’ situations failed to provide much insight into their current motivations.
At best, I think this book would work better as a short story or novella, since the content was so sparse. Ragnar Jonasson isn’t an author I’ve heard of before, but apparently he’s quite prolific and his books are quite popular, so maybe there’s just something lost in translation.
Waiting on Wednesday 06/15/22
Posted on June 15, 2022 5 Comments
Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Mogsy’s Pick
The Swell by Allie Reynolds (July 19 2022 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
I wanted to feature a thriller today, and what better than a new book from an author who has become a must-read for me since her debut Shiver? It’s almost here too.
“Point Break meets And Then There Were None in a pulse-pounding beach read that explores the dangerous ties between a group of elite surfers who are determined to find the perfect waves at any cost…even murder.
The waves are to die for.
Three years ago, passionate surfer Kenna Ward lost her two great loves—after her boyfriend drowned, she hung up her surfboard and swore off the water for good. But she is drawn back to the beach when her best friend, Mikki, announces her sudden engagement to a man Kenna has never met—a member of a tight-knit group of surfers. Kenna travels to a remote Australian beach, entering a dangerous world far from civilization world where the waves, weather, and tides are all that matter. Kenna is tempted back into the surf, and drawn into the dazzling group and the beach they call their own.
But this coastal paradise has a dark side, and members of the group begin to go missing. Kenna realizes that in order to protect Mikki and learn more about the surfers, she must become one of them…without becoming one of their victims. What follows is an adrenaline-fueled thriller packed with twists and turns, exploring the dangerous edge between passion and obsession.”
Novella Review: A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow
Posted on June 14, 2022 10 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow
Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Book 2 of Fractured Fables
Publisher: Tordotcom (June 14, 2022)
Length: 144 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Long story short, I didn’t think A Mirror Mended was quite as good as its predecessor A Spindle Splintered, but if you enjoyed the adventure of Zinnia Gray in the first book, chances are you’ll find a lot to like in this follow-up as well.
The story catches up with our protagonist five years following the events of A Spindle Splintered, and in the interim she has been to pretty much every version of the Sleeping Beauty there is, “fixing” each tale by rescuing the titular princess. She does this by carrying around a magical spindle, which transports her to the different worlds every time she pricks her finger. Right before her fiftieth mission, just as Zinnia is beginning to think she can’t possibly keep this up anymore, she glances into a mirror and is shocked to see a stranger’s face staring back at her.
And no, that isn’t supposed to be some cheesy metaphor. The face staring back at Zinnia is a woman she has never seen before, but she’s gorgeous and is begging her for help, so Zinnia figures it’s another princess needing to be saved. After she jumps through the mirror and is transported into the story, however, the beautiful woman reveals herself to be the Evil Queen of the Snow White fairy tale, throwing Zinnia for a loop. Still, even villains need saving sometimes, and the Queen is desperate for her own better ending, hoping Zinnia could be the one to give it to her.
First, the good: Much like A Spindle Splintered, A Mirror Mended definitely has the humor going for it. The tone is even snarkier, if you can believe it, and there plenty more jokes and jabs aimed at the absurdities of fairy tales, which is good news if a satirical angle is your thing. The focus also shifts to Snow White, and I loved Alix E. Harrow’s take on it. Turning the classics on their head is what the author is good at, so you certainly wouldn’t be disappointed if you enjoy unique and original retellings.
And now for the not so good. The aforementioned snark could be a double-edged sword, as occasionally Zinnia’s quippy commentary would land at the most inopportune times to yank me out of the moment. Also, while I understand these Fractured Fables novellas are meant to light reads, I’d nevertheless expect a certain level of tension from the main conflict and the characters’ predicaments. Unfortunately, the protagonist’s constant fawning over the Evil Queen’s beauty was a distraction that made it difficult to take any threat seriously, and like, if her attentions were clearly not on the dangers at hand, then why should mine be?
The plot was also on the weaker side. There didn’t seem to be much point to this installment other than to strengthen Zinnia’s relationships with her friends Charm and Prim, putting the trio through some rather contrived tribulations while the rest of the story felt like filler material used to pad out the book. Then there was the secondary goal of pushing a romance between Zinnia and the Evil Queen which clearly took precedent over establishing a convincing plot, since solutions to the characters’ problems would seemingly materialize out of the blue, or pieces of the puzzle would fall into the place without much explanation or reason.
Still, your mileage may vary. As I said, these novellas are probably meant to be light, fluffy fun reads, so it’s all about expectations. If you’re a fan of the first book or the author though, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. I will look forward to (hopefully) more from Fractured Fables.
Bookshelf Roundup: 06/11/22: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Posted on June 11, 2022 9 Comments
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
Received for Review
My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!
Thank you to 47North and Wunderkind PR for a finished copy of The Peacekeeper by B.L. Blanchard! I’ve meant to have started already on this alternate history mystery, but got a bit sidetracked last month with some Wyrd & Wonder books, but I’m planning on picking this up next.
With thanks also to Orbit Books for an ARC of The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri. This is the second book of the Burning Kingdoms series and the sequel to The Jasmine Throne which I really enjoyed, so I’m looking forward to starting this one!
And from the awesome folks at Atria/Emily Bestler Books, I also received an ARC of First Born by Will Dean, a psychological thriller about dark secrets that come to light when a London woman receives word that her identical twin sister living in New York was murdered. File this one under perfect summer reading.
Not too busy in the digital pile this week, just one new audiobook from the amazing team at HarperAudio from whom I received a listening copy of Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid, a horror gothic retelling of The Juniper Tree.
Reviews
In the Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan (4 of 5 stars)
Blood Will Tell by Heather Chavez (3.5 of 5 stars)
What I’ve Been Reading
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read!
Friday Face-Off: Turquoise
Posted on June 10, 2022 7 Comments
Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme created by Books by Proxy! Each Friday, we will pit cover against cover while also taking the opportunity to showcase gorgeous artwork and feature some of our favorite book covers. If you want to join the fun, simply choose a book each Friday that fits that week’s predetermined theme, post and compare two or more different covers available for that book, then name your favorite. A list of future weeks’ themes are available at Lynn’s Book Blog.
This week’s theme is:
“Sparkling like the sea”
~ a cover that is TURQUOISE
Alive by Scott Sigler
Finding a turquoise cover for this week was tougher than I thought. Luckily, right before I gave up, I remembered Alive, a sci-fi horror dystopian YA told through the eyes of a girl who wakes up on her twelfth birthday with no no recollection of who she is or what her life was life before she went to sleep. She finds herself in darkness, trapped in an enclosed space that feels disturbingly like a coffin. And most confusing of all, she knows she is supposed to be twelve, but her body looks and feels like it should belong to someone older, like a woman in her late teens or early twenties. What could be happening to her, and why?
Let’s take a look at the covers:
From left to right:
Del Rey (2015) – Del Rey Kindle (2015)
French Edition (2016) – Hungarian Edition (2016)
Winner:
If I had to choose a winner, it would probably be the Del Rey hardcover, mostly because it’s the most familiar to me. But quite honestly, none of them really stood out for me this week!
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
Thriller Thursday: Blood Will Tell by Heather Chavez
Posted on June 9, 2022 5 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Blood Will Tell by Heather Chavez
Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: William Morrow (April 26, 2022)
Length: 400 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Blood Will Tell was a book that snuck up on me, but after her debut thriller No Bad Deed blew my socks off last year, it didn’t take much convincing for me to pick up another book by Heather Chavez!
In this one, we follow Frankie Barrera, a teacher and single mom. There are two people she loves most in the world—her 4-year-old son Julian, as well as her younger sister Izzy. The latter though, who is in her twenties, is understandably unappreciative of Frankie’s attentions, believing her older sister to be overprotective and unnecessarily restrictive. But Frankie has her reasons to be concerned, as trouble always seems to follow Izzy. Five years ago, she went out partying with five of her friends, and at the end of the night, Frankie had to come rescue her from a scene of a car accident. Drunk and confused, Izzy couldn’t remember much, but one of the party goers, her good friend Rachel, disappeared that night and was never seen again.
Now as the story begins in the current time, Frankie is inadvertently caught up in a missing person investigation when the police pulls her truck over for matching. the model and make of the vehicle described in an Amber Alert. Even as she is explaining the misunderstanding, a worried Frankie wonders if her younger sister might have something to do with the abduction, which involves a teenage girl, not to mention the fact Izzy is also the only other person with access to her truck.
After the insanity that was No Bad Deed, this one seemed almost tame in comparison! Not that that’s a bad thing. Just different. Family drama plays a prominent part in Blood Will Tell, and the story has less thrills but more mystery. Over the years, Frankie and Izzy’s parents have had a lot of financial problems and health issues, leaving their girls to fend for themselves. This means Frankie has had to take care of Izzy, who hasn’t made raising her easy, with her wild partying and drug abuse.
But if the family angle was compelling, what of the mystery? This was where the book faltered for me. With two missing persons stories running concurrently, one in the past and one in the future, you would think there was plenty of content to keep the interest high, but I don’t think either really broke the mold and offered anything too different and special. The pool of suspects was small to beginwith, and so the mystery itself also remained limited in scope.
That said, the story was interesting to follow, and the author kept a good hold on all the different threads so the plot was fast-paced and tight. Things didn’t get quite so over-the-top as with No Bad Deed but it did make Blood Will Tell feel more down-to-earth and believable. The relationship between Frankie and Izzy was touching, and realistically complex. The ending was the chef’s kiss on a wonderful narrative between two sisters who might not always get along, but the lengths Frankie goes to protect Izzy should tell you all you need to know. I think anyone with an appreciation for sibling stories will enjoy this one, especially with an added dose of intrigue and light thrills.
Waiting on Wednesday 06/08/2022
Posted on June 8, 2022 7 Comments
Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Mogsy’s Pick
Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie (January 24, 2023 by Redhook)
Craig DiLouie seems to be an author who can tackle many different genres, and Episode Thirteen sounds like it will be amazing! I’ve never read him before, but this one sounds right up my alley. A ghost hunting reality TV show? A haunted house? I needed this book like yesterday!
“A ghost-hunting reality TV crew gain unprecedented access to an abandoned and supposedly haunted mansion, which promises a groundbreaking thirteenth episode, but as they uncover the secret history of the house, they learn that “reality” TV might be all too real — in Bram Stoker Award nominated author Craig DiLouie’s latest heart pounding novel of horror and psychological suspense.
Fade to Black is the newest hit ghost hunting reality TV show. It’s led by husband and wife team Matt and Claire Kirklin and features a dedicated crew of ghost-hunting experts.
Episode Thirteen takes them to Matt’s holy grail: the Paranormal Research Foundation. This crumbling, derelict mansion holds secrets and clues about the bizarre experiments that took place there in the 1970s. It’s also, undoubtably, haunted, and Matt hopes to use their scientific techniques and high tech gear to prove it.
But, as the house begins to slowly reveal itself to them, proof of an afterlife might not be everything Matt dreamed of.
A story told in broken pieces, in tapes, journals, correspondence, and research files, this is the story of Episode Thirteen — and how everything went horribly wrong.”
Book Review: In the Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan
Posted on June 7, 2022 13 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
In the Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Series: Book 1 of Glass Immortals
Publisher: Tor (June 21, 2022)
Length: 576 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
In the first epic fantasy by Brian McClellan since his Powder Mage series of novels concluded, In the Shadow of Lightning begins a new adventure in the world of the Glass Immortals, a universe featuring magic powered by colorful forged godglass. We begin with a miscommunication—one that leads to massacre and the ruination of a military rising star’s career. Nine years later, Demir Grappo is a disgraced outcast, but when the news of his mother’s death reaches him, he returns to the capital to uncover the truth behind her killing.
But untangling this mystery won’t be easy. Demir has been gone too long, and is unfamiliar with the city’s politics. He hires a dear friend, Kizzie, to help him in his investigation. In the process of hunting his mother’s murderer, he also tracks down a siliceer, someone who can forge godglass. Not only is Thessa one hell of a glass smith, she is also a great scientific mind with many projects going, and one of the most disturbing developments she is studying is the depletion of raw materials used to create godglass. As Thessa scrambles to build a device capable of recharging used glass, Demir and Kizzie find more allies to aid them in their mission to unravel a plot that runs deeper than all of them imagined.
In the Shadow of Lightning is an incredibly unique and imaginative novel—but I wouldn’t have expected anything less from the author. I was definitely impressed with the world-building and this new magical system based around godglass. If you’re familiar with McClellan’s Powder Mage series, or even his mentor Brandon Sanderson’s work, you’d probably have some idea what it might be like, but at the same time, it’ll also be completely different than anything you’ve ever read. Depending on the type of Godglass, magic users called glassdancers can manifest various abilities by tapping into their power. If you’re thinking this sounds a little like Mistborn’s Allomancy, that thought had occurred to me as well.
Then there are the characters. Out of this relatively large cast, Demir is the closest we have to a protagonist. From the beginning, he made for a powerfully sympathetic figure. A general who walked away from a life of privilege to become a vagabond, he is forced to return to his roots and reclaim his seat at the head of his family following his mother’s death. He is the reluctant hero, and wears that mantle well. The supporting cast was also very compelling, including a couple of strong female leads who play important, memorable roles in the story. A bit of comic relief is also supplied by Baby Montego, a famous fighter who is just so out there that you can’t help but find his bravado and antics endearing. In fact, I found the many moments of levity quite surprising, given how many of the characters came from tragic and/or dark backgrounds.
Still, a lot of the backstories and character flaws come across as a bit cliched. Granted, I think it would help ease a new reader into the plot and settle in more comfortably, given how much there is to take in. The plot slowed considerably after the first few chapters, as the author shifted gears towards more explanation and world-building, resulting in a mystery that was more slow-burn and going nowhere fast. Luckily, we started easing off the brakes again once we hit the second half, and with the introduction of some of the more, er, monstrous elements of the story, I found the last sections of the book really hard to put down.
All in all, I enjoyed In the Shadow of Lightning. In some ways it was pure Brian McClellan, but it also held a lot of surprises, and alas, some disappointments as well. That said, I don’t feel discouraged, as this is just the first book of a new series. I remember having similar thoughts after finishing Promise of Blood when it first came out, feeling excited despite having some doubts, but knowing deep down it was the start of something special. I’m confident we’re building up to something great here as well, and I look forward to diving deeper into the rest of the series.
The BiblioSanctum 