Dear Readers, January was a great month for reading, I was snow bound for a week and caught up on some books on my TBR. I read six books this month. I read 2 horror, 1 mystery, 1 fantasy, 2 science fiction and 1 new release thanks to netgalley. I Read 3 books from a book series Goosebumps Legend of the Lost Legend book 47, Star Wars the High Republic Jedi’s End book 3 and Black Hammer –Black Hammer Reborn book 5. I read five 4 star books, and one 2 star book.

Four Star Reviews:

The Fury by Alex Michaelides is a fun who dunnit mystery filled with drama on a remote island location. The Fury relies heavily on an unreliable narrator which is sometimes annoying but overall effective. The narrative is a clever twist on Shakespeare’s Othello. If you know the story of Othello nothing will be ruined or spoiled, but I found a lot of similarities in the story. The pace of this story is rapid, I was able to easily knock this book out with a few hours of reading. A few of the twists and turns make this book hard to put down. The characters are not that likable which for most stories wouldn’t work, but for this story, it adds to the drama of any of these characters can kill or be killed. The writing of the story though fun is a big step down in quality from previous works that were very sophisticated where this story is more sophomoric. I got to read The Fury thanks to Netgalley and Celadon Books for giving me a free copy for review. The Fury was published on January 16, 2024.

The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams is book one of an epic fantasy trilogy called Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series. The Dragonbone Chair starts with an unlikely hero thrust into the hero role despite being odd and gawky. This fantasy book like hundreds of others was heavily influenced by Tolkien’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. The world-building is intense as the first hundred pages are slow and a bit exposition-heavy, but once the story gets going it focuses on its characters. The characters of Simon, Josua, and Binabik are very well-written and drive the story in the second half of the book. Miriamele is a strong female that is not just a damsel in distress. The novel is full of twists, turns, and betrayal. There are not many battle scenes though few we do get are action-packed and have dire consequences. The novel is not afraid to kill its side characters, which is exciting for the reader. The novel ends on a cliffhanger with many fates in the balance. The ending managed to feel like a proper ending for the book, as some characters grow and are in a different place, and it hints at the danger that some characters are in at the moment and further danger down the line.

Stinger by Robert McCammon is a brutal science fiction/horror mashup that delivers the horror and the heart. Stinger is an original work like nothing I’ve read before. It is part S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, part High Noon, part The Thing, and part E.T. The book features a gang turf war, immigration issues, possession, racism, and money issues, basically everything that is going on right now except the alien invasion. The alien invasion is unique in how it was told, it reminded me of The Terminator 2 where you had to guess the bad guy. The pace could have been better as it takes its time explaining the town and how it works before showing the threat. I put McCammon in the same terms as Stephen King who are both great at exposition both are a little slow in the pace department, but always provide interesting worlds and create such unique characters that are hard to forget. This story has a lot of heart I got choked up two times at the end. 

Star Wars: The High Republic Volume 3 – Jedi’s End by Cavan Scott is a graphic novel that takes place 200 years before Star Wars: A New Hope. Jedi’s End continues exactly where Volume 2 left off with the Nihil kidnapping Keeve and one of the twins they meet the Nameless who can cut off the Jedi from the force. This novel features a lot of Avar Kriss, who is my favorite of the High Republic Jedi, and have been begging to see more of her in the books, she gets a great storyline and is the lead character of this volume. The action is intense in the story, there is a cool scene with a thrown lightsaber that is controlled by the force to curve and cut through enemies. The Jedi apprentice/Jedi master relationship between Keeve and Ssskeer has been the heart of this series and is still the best part of this novel. The pace of this book is nonstop during the main story, this graphic novel comes with two additional stories about the leader of the Nihil which are very slow-paced and have very few highlights.

Black Hammer Volume 5 Reborn Part 1 by Jeff Lemire is a continuance of the Black Hammer series following the hero that was a small part of the first four volumes and was the daughter of an original member of the team. This book will serve as a reboot but with lots of throwbacks to Volumes 1-4 and one recurring character coming back, who was part of the original team. The Black Hammer series is big on fate and we will see a character deal with aging and fate 20 years after the end of Volume 4. Black Hammer is a very meta and truly weird story that messes with time, you could not pick up this volume and not go what is going on. I’ve read all the volumes and still go, what is going on? at some points. There’s slightly more action in this volume than in previous ones. The pace of the book moves very rapidly. The conclusion for the volume is very good and makes you want to pick up the next volume as soon as possible with a huge twist at the end.

Two Star Reviews:

Goosebumps – Legend of the Lost Legend by R. L. Stine is Goosebumps book 47 in the original series order. Legend of the Lost Legend feels like a choose-your-adventure book since there are stories within stories. The narrative is all over the place, making the reader question what is real. The book has one thing going for it, a clever ending. This story has one of the better final twist endings in the series but the worst setups to it. The novel has too many scenes that are set up and revealed to not be real. A Shocker on Shock Street had the same setup but it showed some restraint and two scenarios where everything is not real, whereas Legend of the Lost Legend has six scenarios where everything is fake. Goosebumps books are so fast I have never really had a feeling of not finishing a book until this one. There are too many fake things happening where it questioned me to ask what is the point of this story. It is funny that I liked the ending so much because it is the only real moment in the book.