I managed to do it! I didn’t even realize that all the books were under the horror genre umbrella in some way. I did cruise through a couple ebooks series that are more suspense genres.
GODKILLER – Hannah Kaner (Thanks to Harper Voyager for the copy)
Kissen’s family were killed by zealots of a fire god. Now, she makes a living killing gods, and enjoys it. That is until she finds a god she cannot kill: Skedi, a god of white lies, has somehow bound himself to a young noble, and they are both on the run from unknown assassins.
Joined by a disillusioned knight on a secret quest, they must travel to the ruined city of Blenraden, where the last of the wild gods reside, to each beg a favour.
Pursued by demons, and in the midst of burgeoning civil war, they will all face a reckoning – something is rotting at the heart of their world, and only they can be the ones to stop it.
My Thoughts: 4/5 stars – I feel like I’ve been reading a lot of books lately with demons and gods, and I’m not mad about it one little bit. The prologue immediately had my full attention, and I was invested from the start. The characters were memorable and unique, and the world building that started in this book is laying through groundwork for future books in the series. The only reason I knocked off one star was because the middle of the book had some uneven pacing to it. However, the redemption came with the ending, and I’m anxious to see how things continue.
THE DEAD TAKE THE A TRAIN – Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey (Thanks to Tor Nightfire for the copy)
Julie Crews is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-something who packs a lot of magic into her small body. She’s been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs to claw her way to the top.
Julie is desperate for a quick career boost to break the dead-end grind, but her pleas draw the attention of an eldritch god who is hungry for revenge. Her power grab sets off a deadly chain of events that puts her closest friends – and the entire world – directly in the path of annihilation.
The first explosive adventure in the Carrion City Duology, The Dead Take the A Train fuses Khaw’s cosmic horror and Kadrey’s gritty fantasy into a full-throttle thrill ride straight into New York’s magical underbelly.
My Thoughts: 4/5 stars – I’m so happy to hear that this is book one in a duology! Minus the fact that I now have to wait for the second book to come out. I had a lot of fun with this one! This was the perfect combination of gruesome/gore and dark humor. The beginning, wow, talk about memorable. There’s some great body horror in this, like what you can come to expect from Khaw! The urban fantasy genre is one I don’t usually venture into, but I’m so glad I did. Now, the wait for book two.
THE COMPLEX – Brian Keene
There was no warning. No chance to escape. They came suddenly. Naked. Bloodthirsty. Sadistic. They descended upon the Pine Village Apartment Complex, relentlessly torturing and killing anyone they could find.
Fearing for their lives, the residents of the complex must band together. A young trans woman, a suicidal middle-aged writer, a lonely Vietnam vet, a newlywed couple, an elderly widow, a single mother and her son, two on-the-run criminals and the serial killer known as The Exit. Eleven strangers. The only thing they have in common is the unstoppable horde that wants to kill them. If they are to make it through the night, they must fight back.
My Thoughts: 3.5/5 stars – I picked up this copy when I was at KillerCon in August and figured it would be best to hold off until spooky season truly started. I don’t know how I’d react to a bunch of bloodthirsty naked people attacking my apartment complex 😂 obviously them being naked takes it to a different level – like you wanna defend yourself and your home, but that makes it more difficult. This had some great characters, and they all now had a common goal – survive and protect their complex. This was bloody and wonderful, and now I need more from Keene!
FIND HIM WHERE YOU LEFT HIM DEAD – Kristen Simmons (Thanks to Tor Teen for the copy)
Four years ago, five kids started a game. Not all of them survived.
Now, at the end of their senior year of high school, the survivors―Owen, Madeline, Emerson, and Dax―have reunited for one strange and terrible they’ve been summoned by the ghost of Ian, the friend they left for dead.
Together they return to the place where their friendship ended with one find Ian and bring him home. So they restart the deadly game they never finished―an innocent card-matching challenge called Meido. A game without instructions.
As soon as they begin, they’re dragged out of their reality and into an eerie hellscape of Japanese underworlds, more horrifying than even the darkest folktales that Owen’s grandmother told him. There, they meet Shinigami, an old wise woman who explains the rules: They have one night to complete seven challenges or they’ll all be stuck in this world forever.
Once inseparable, the survivors now can’t stand each other, but the challenges demand they work together, think quickly, and make sacrifices―blood, clothes, secrets, memories, and worse.
And once again, not everyone will make it out alive.
My Thoughts: 3.5/5 stars – Jumanji meets I Know What You Did Last Summer with some Japanese folklore. I couldn’t resist picking this one up and just look at this cover! Five kids went out to play a game, but only four came out. Those who know what happened aren’t talking.
Now, four years later, they’re all finishing their senior year at school, but they find that they’re being summoned by Ian’s ghost to finish the game they started. Meido is a card matching game with no instructions, and they end up dragged into the horrible hellscape of the Japanese underworlds.
To survive, they estranged friends must now work together if they want to make it back to their reality. Of course, things get intense, and I did love the eerie and spooky things that happened. The characters were all unique, and I enjoyed the Japanese folklore, but just something didn’t quite land for me. It’s very hit or miss for me with YA horror, and I think it’s usually centered around the characters. BUT I did have fun with this and do recommend it.
EVERYONE DIES FAMOUS IN A SMALL TOWN – Wrath James White
Mika Shaw is a promiscuous, drug-addicted, schizophrenic who lives in Bishop, California, a small town in the Eastern Sierras where there’s nothing to do but drink, get high, and have sex. Plagued by bizarre hallucinations, reality and nightmares co-exist in her mind, indistinguishable from one another.When her closest friends begin dying all around her under increasingly violent and bizarre circumstances, Mika is terrified that this time the nightmares aren’t just in her head.
The Paiute believe that malevolent spirits called Pahoha, water-babies, live in the Owens River. The Pahoha have pale skin and black eyes and their voices sound like the cries of young children summoning strangers to the lake to be drowned. Sometimes they look like lost loved ones, dead friends or relatives calling from the other side. To see them is to be fatally cursed… and Mika has seen them.
My Thoughts: 4/5 stars – One thing I’ve learned since moving into a more rural area is that some creepy shit happens out here. Like most recently, a body was found in a tote bin nearby. I’m pretty sure the place two doors down from us has something sketchy going on – never see anyone there, but the grass is mowed, and the snow plowed. Looks abandoned, but sometimes there’s a light on inside.
Anyways, this book brings us into quite the depressing small town with some horrible things happening. I love anything involving folklore and legends, and oh boy, did this one have a creepy one. Demonic babies with black eyes in the river would also terrify me. I loved the characters and the emotional and intense journey they all went on through this book. A quick horror read, and now I need more from Wrath James White.
Jessicamap Reviews 