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For as long as they can remember, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia have been told how lucky they are. As young girls they were rescued from family tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother, Miss Fairchild, on an idyllic farming estate and given an elusive second chance at a happy family life.
But their childhood wasn’t the fairy tale everyone thinks it was. Miss Fairchild had rules. Miss Fairchild could be unpredictable. And Miss Fairchild was never, ever to be crossed. In a moment of desperation, the three broke away from Miss Fairchild and thought they were free. Even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere in the shadows of their minds. When a body is discovered under the home they grew up in, the foster sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses. Or are they prime suspects?
A thrilling page-turner of sisterhood, secrets, love, and murder by New York Times bestselling author Sally Hepworth.
I borrowed a bunch of Hepworth’s books after loving the last one I read; The Good Sister.
The Quotes
“Even after all these years, yearning for the love and attention of someone who couldn’t give it to her was much more comfortable than actually receiving it.”
“Some people are so busy chasing perfection they don’t appreciate the wonders right in front of them”
“When cruelty becomes familiar in your tender, adolescent years, of course you start to become comfortable with it. You believe you deserve it. But you don’t.”
“When it came to vengeance, Miss Fairchild preferred to play the long game.”
The Narrator(s)
Jessica Clarke. I enjoyed her narration more than Barrie Kreinik’s for The Good Sister.
My Thoughts
I didn’t enjoy this one as much as The Good Sister but I thought it was pretty good too. I’m discovering that I often find the author’s stories predictable but I still really like their storytelling style and I’m happy to read more. It’s the psychological horror that gets me; the author writes those emotional scenes so well and I find myself feeling all the feelings. This book features motherhood, foster children, and the complicated issues that come with that. I loved the story overall, but I have to say that I found the last chapter unnecessary and unrealistic. It was a twist for shock factor but it doesn’t make sense to the story, in my opinion, and it not only weakens the shock factor but the whole psychological horror aspect. It was a great story up to that point.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Sally Hepworth, the author of The Mother-In-Law delivers a knock-out of a novel about the lies that bind two sisters in The Good Sister.
There’s only been one time that Rose couldn’t stop me from doing the wrong thing and that was a mistake that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Fern Castle works in her local library. She has dinner with her twin sister Rose three nights a week. And she avoids crowds, bright lights and loud noises as much as possible. Fern has a carefully structured life and disrupting her routine can be…dangerous.
When Rose discovers that she cannot get pregnant, Fern sees her chance to pay her sister back for everything Rose has done for her. Fern can have a baby for Rose. She just needs to find a father. Simple.
Fern’s mission will shake the foundations of the life she has carefully built for herself and stir up dark secrets from the past, in this quirky, rich and shocking story of what families keep hidden.
I have enjoyed Sally Hepworth’s books in the past and this one sounded good.
The Quotes
“The library belongs to everyone. The library, Janet used to say, is one of only a few places in the world that one doesn’t need to believe anything or buy anything to come inside.”
“I’d always found there was something agreeable about people who liked dogs and something untrustworthy about those who didn’t.”
“If it were up to me, every child would have a year in the library before they went to school.”
“Sisterly relationships are so strange in this way. The way I can be mad at Rose but still want to please her. Be terrified of her and also want to run to her. Hate her and love her, both at the same time. Maybe when it comes to sisters, boundaries are always a little bit blurry. Blurred boundaries, I think, are what sisters do best.”
The Narrator(s)
Barrie Kreinik. She was overall good, but there were times when her voices for each character was inconsistent and I wasn’t sure who was talking.
My Thoughts
This is one of the best mystery thrillers I’ve read in a while. I was so incredibly invested in the story and it really felt like I had my heart in my throat for most of the second half of the book. The first half was also very interesting because Fern’s POV read like a wholesome romance, while Rose’s POV was so sad and difficult to read at times.
I did figure out early on what was happening, but it didn’t ruin the story for me because the journey from beginning to the end was just so good. These are some of the most interesting characters I’ve come across and I especially love Wally/Rocco’s character. To be clear, some of these characters aren’t necessarily good people and I do question some of their actions, but they are so interesting to read about and get to know as we move through the book.
It’s early in the year and I already feel like this may be one of my favorite books this year. I would be very happy to be proven wrong because that only means that I’ll have many more great books to look forward to, but this one was just incredible.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
“An unforgettable, unflinching glimpse into a mind driven to murder” (San Francisco Chronicle)—the #1 national bestseller from Stephen King about a housekeeper with a long-hidden secret from her past…one that tests her own will to survive.
Dolores Claiborne is suspected of killing Vera Donovan, her wealthy employer, and when the police question her, she tells the story of her life, harkening back to her disintegrating marriage and the suspicious death of her violent husband thirty years earlier. Dolores also tells of Vera’s physical and mental decline and how she became emotionally demanding in recent years.
Given a voice as compelling as any in contemporary fiction, the strange intimacy between Dolores and Vera—and the link that binds them—unfolds in Dolores’s account. It shows, finally, how fierce love can be, and how dreadful its consequences. And how the soul, harrowed by the hardest life, can achieve a kind of grace.
For my Stephen King challenge, and also because I heard this was one of the really good depictions of women King has written.
The Quotes
“Sometimes you have to be a high riding bitch to survive, sometimes, being a bitch is all a woman has to hang on to.”
“There ain’t no power in heaven or on earth that can stop people from thinkin the worst when they want to.”
“…the love a natural mother feels for her children. That’s the strongest love there is in this world, and it’s the deadliest. There’s no bitch on earth like a mother frightened for her kids.”
The Narrator(s)
Frances Sternhagen. She is absolutely perfect! Just perfect! I love her voice for this book.
My Thoughts
This was actually one of the first Stephen King books I bought but I wasn’t able to read it at the time because the format was difficult to get into and I ended up not finishing it. My original copy has long since been lost, but that’s okay as it turned out to be amazing to listen to on audiobook! The narrator is just so perfect, I cannot express just how amazing it was to listen to her, and I was so pulled into the story.
I watched the movie just last year, and of course, I love Kathy Bates in it and now that I’ve read the book, I think the movie was very faithfully and well done, but I have to say it; the book is better! Having Dolores pretty much narrating her whole life story in an interview format may or may not have worked for me when I tried to read it as a teenager, but listening to it on audio made it feel so much like she was talking to me personally. I love seeing the person Dolores is, as a mother, as a caregiver, as a woman just trying to do the best she can for the people she cares about. How many favorite Stephen King books can a reader have? Because this has become another one of my favorites!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Detective Max Rupert series (Books 1-5) by Allen Eskens
College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe’s life is ever the same. Carl is a dying Vietnam veteran–and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home, after spending thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder.
As Joe writes about Carl’s life, especially Carl’s valor in Vietnam, he cannot reconcile the heroism of the soldier with the despicable acts of the convict. Joe, along with his skeptical female neighbor, throws himself into uncovering the truth, but he is hamstrung in his efforts by having to deal with his dangerously dysfunctional mother, the guilt of leaving his autistic brother vulnerable, and a haunting childhood memory. Thread by thread, Joe unravels the tapestry of Carl’s conviction. But as he and Lila dig deeper into the circumstances of the crime, the stakes grow higher. Will Joe discover the truth before it’s too late to escape the fallout?
The Reason
I accidentally came across the first book as I was browsing Libby. I read it and loved it and wanted more, and the other books were available so I borrowed them all at once!
The Quotes
“No sin could be greater than a sin that cannot be rectified, the sin you never get to confess.”
“But we do have control of how much of our soul we leave behind in this mess. Don’t ever forget that. We do still have some choices.”
“What if, in all the eons of eternity, this was the one and only time that I would be alive. How would I live my life if that were the case?”
“But it also means that this is our heaven. We are surrounded every day by the wonders of life, wonders beyond comprehension that we simply take for granted.”
My Thoughts
All the books in the series are different enough that I feel like I should do an individual post for each one, but they’re also linked as a series, and I have something to say about the series as a whole, so I decided to do one post for them all. Plus, I’m lazy, so there.
These books are listed under the Detective Max Rupert series, but many of them feature characters in other series written by the author. The first book, The Life We Bury, is primarily listed under the Joe Talbert series, and features Joe Talbert as the protagonist. I intend to read that series as well because I love the Joe Talbert character, but I’ll be writing this post from the point of view of Detective Max Rupert as the overarching character.
Book 1 – The Life We Bury Narrated by Zack Villa. I loved his portrayal of Joe Talbert. No notes. For the reading challenge(s) – TBD
The first book features Joe Talbert as the main character; Detective Max Rupert plays an important but minimal role, and if I hadn’t been looking out for him (because he is the series’ titular character) I might not even have remembered his name. I loved Joe Talbert as a character though, and I loved this particular story. Joe is a student writing a story for a school project who stumbled upon a case and felt the need to get to the bottom of the story. I loved how the story played out, how thrilling it got, and how it feels different from other thriller stories. At the end of it, I felt a little disappointed that I was going to move on to the next book in Detective Max Rupert’s series rather than Joe Talbert’s series (one was available while the other was not), but I am definitely looking forward to reading more about Joe Talbert in the future.
Book 2 – The Guise of Another Narrated by Jonathan Yen. My least favorite of the series’ narrators, but possibly because the MC is my least favorite character as well. For the reading challenge(s): 2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #8: A three-syllable word in the title)
This one features Detective Max Rupert’s brother, Alexander Rupert. I expected to see more of Max Rupert this time, and I did, but interestingly, Max was a side character to Alexander’s main. I was very much pulled into the story and got very invested in all the characters, regardless of their role in the story. I didn’t like Alexander as a person but his character was very interesting, and I loved that the story shocked and surprised me with the direction it took. It’s not your regular police procedural and I love that.
Book 3 – The Heavens May Fall Narrated by R.C. Bray, David Colacci, Amy McFadden. They were great. I love the different voices for the different POVs. For the reading challenge(s): 2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #2: Kangaroo word on the cover [Heaven – haven])
The main character in this one is Boady Sanden, a lawyer and long-time friend of Max Rupert’s. Boady makes an appearance in The Life We Bury, but we see a lot more of him and his backstory in this book. Max Rupert plays a part in this story, but again, doesn’t take center stage. There is also a Boady Sanden series that doesn’t include this book that I will probably check out at some point. In this book, Boady and Max are at odds because Boady is defending a person that Max had arrested and believes is a criminal. Lila Nash, who is Joe Talbert’s love interest in The Life We Bury, also makes an appearance here and I love seeing her again.
Book 4 – The Deep Dark Descending Narrated by R.C. Bray. It was perfect, especially for how intense this story was. For the reading challenge(s) – TBD
We finally see Max Rupert as the main protagonist in this book. Very much front and center, very much raw and intense. There is such an interesting exploration of Max’s history and psyche, mixed in between the chaos happening in real time, that’s just incredible to see happening on the page. We also see more of Niki Vang, Max’s partner, who is definitely one of my favorite characters in this series. It’s hard to talk about this book without giving away key elements, but it’s almost like the intensity I feel with The Count of Monte Cristo, obviously on a much smaller scale because The Count of Monte Cristo is incomparable.
Book 5 – Forsaken Country Narrated by Brian Troxell. I enjoyed his narration very much. For the reading challenge(s) – TBD
Max is still a main character in this story although the primary storyline is about a colleague’s missing adult daughter and grandson. He’s asked to help with the personal investigation as the acting sheriff doesn’t believe the missing persons are actually missing or in trouble. The story itself is as thrilling as all the previous books, but we continue to get some more exploration of Max’s character arc and I love that too. I love where we landed on by the end of the book, but I’m definitely curious to see if there will be more books in the series and where they’ll go.
Overall I’m not sure how the author planned these books because of how different each one of them are, and the fact that the titular character of the series don’t play main character roles in the initial books, but I loved how they turned out! And to be honest, I think what I loved most about these books is the fact that they’re all so different and not formulaic at all; the first book being from a journalistic POV, the second more like a police procedural, the third a legal thriller, and so on. It does feel like I’m reading completely different books, yet they are all immersive and interesting in their own ways. I’m loving this experience and I’m very interested in reading more from the author!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Four stars overall, because while I love the stories and find them very interesting on an intellectual level, I’m missing just a tiny bit of the emotional connection to the characters.
Have you read this series? Would you read this series? Did you like it or do you think you would like it?
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians comes a tale of the American West, writ in blood.
This chilling historical novel is set in the nascent days of the state of Montana, following a Blackfeet Indian named Good Stab as he haunts the fields of the Blackfeet Nation looking for justice.
It begins when a diary written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall in 2012. What is unveiled is a slow massacre, a nearly forgotten chain of events that goes back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow, told in the transcribed interviews with Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar and unnaturally long life over a series of confessional visits.
This is an American Indian revenge story, captured in the vivid voices of the time, by one of the new masters of literary horror, Stephen Graham Jones.
This is my bookclub’s Book of the Month, and I wanted to read more diverse books and Indigenous authors.
The Quotes
“What I am is the Indian who can’t die. I’m the worst dream America ever had.”
“You put your reminders of pain on the wall and pray to them. We still hurt, so we don’t need that reminder.”
“My father used to tell me that I needed to pay attention to where I was instead of looking farther away than I could see, and I know he was right, but knowing and doing aren’t the same thing.”
The Narrator(s)
Shane Ghostkeeper. Marin Ireland. Owen Teale. The narrations and production was incredible, very well done.
My Thoughts
I really loved the story; I loved how Indigenous history and culture was presented here but also woven into the story’s vampire lore. It brings a whole new level to the “you are what you eat” thing and I am here for it, but it’s also such an interesting detail because of the theme throughout the story about how there is this whole “us vs. them” mentality, and how we dehumanize “the others” so that we can feel good about victimizing them.
There is a lot more to parse through with topics of morality, religion, heritage, and revenge, and the story itself is thrilling in and of itself and I found myself rushing through it in order to find out what happens next. The format of the story was also really meta; it’s a story within a story within a story within a story! Good Stab’s story as told by Arthur, Arthur’s story as told by Etsy, and Etsy’s story finally, and the story as a whole.
I feel like there is so much to this book and I’m very aware of the fact that I probably missed a lot of details, but I also feel like this is the kind of book that I will go back to again and get more out of it.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Bel’s joined the tiny Manchester office of a national paper from her indie podcast.
Thirty-something Connor is going to back to the start as the new intern.
The latest office news? They can’t stand each other.
So of course Bel bumps into Connor when she’s working undercover on the biggest scoop of her career. And of course she’s forced to improvise, pretending they’re a couple. A couple deeply in love.
Two rivals. One fake romance. The headline writes itself…
I have loved many of the author’s other works and would read anything by her.
The Narrator(s)
Kristin Atherton. I really like her narration! Her male voices were a little funny, but not funny enough to be an issue. It was quite a pleasure.
My Thoughts
I loved this book and it reminds me why I love McFarlane’s works so much! Her books are always thoughtful, sensitive to real life issues, and yet still feeds the romantic need in my soul. I love the chemistry between Bel and Connor, and I love how their relationship builds as we move forward in the story and they continue working together. I also love the premise of the story itself; the undercover story that they work on together, the other issues that they face individually and as a team, their personal backstories, and their professional lives at stake. McFarlane’s books always hit, and I am very strongly tempted to binge read and reread all of McFarlane’s books right now.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge mountains. In the aftermath of her death, that estate—along with a nine-figure fortune and the complicated legacy of being a McTavish—pass to her adopted son, Camden.
But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.
Ten years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the wake of his uncle’s death brings him and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so quick to leave in the first place.
Jules, however, has other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam’s estranged family—and the twisted secrets they keep—the more determined she is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to have.
But Ruby’s plans were always more complicated than they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will—and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.
This book caught my attention last year but I didn’t get around to reading it. I saw that the author has a new book coming out this year, so I thought I should probably read this one first.
The Quotes
“I hope you never have to watch the one person you love most in the world, the person who loves you just as fiercely in return, lose that love, day by day, bit by bit, a steady draining away until there’s nothing left. Until they’re just a person who sleeps inches from you at night, and eats meals across a table from you, and reads books at your side, even smiles at you or laughs with you, but whose heart has shut you out forever.”
“There should be some kind of warning when your life is about to change forever.”
“The truth isn’t some finite thing, it’s what we all choose to believe.”
“I had just turned forty, an interesting point in a woman’s life, the age at which she finally begins to feel like she might have finally become the person she was meant to be.”
The Narrator(s)
Dan Bittner. Eliza Foss. John Pirhalla. Patti Murin. They all did a very good job. The storytelling felt seamless and very natural. I loved it.
My Thoughts
The story itself was pretty good, but I think what I loved most about it was the storytelling style. I love the way things were revealed, the way the twists were doled out, the way we are able to guess at some things and be surprised at others. The funny thing is I’m usually a character-driven reader, but I don’t think I like any of the characters in the story very much at all. However, I did find them all very interesting, and I love hating some of them. I was very much invested in each of their individual stories as well as their interlocking stories, and even though I found Cam boring and Jules suspicious, I was still rooting for them somehow. I enjoyed this story very much and I’m definitely looking forward to other books by the author.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is seen as a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.
In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, preventable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing over a million people every year.
In Everything Is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world—and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.
This has been on my TBR for a while and I’ve heard a lot of praise for it as well. It was also voted in for my online bookclub’s January BOTM so I finally took the plunge!
The Quotes
“Nothing is so privileged as thinking history belongs to the past.”
“It reminded me, that when we know about suffering, when we are proximal to it, we are capable of extraordinary generosity. We can do and be so much for each other. But only when we see one another in our full humanity. Not as statistics or problems, but as people who deserve to be alive in the world.”
“Framing illness as even involving morality seems to me a mistake, because of course cancer does not give a shit whether you are a good person. Biology has no moral compass. It does not punish the evil and reward the good. It doesn’t even know about evil and good.”
“The idea of becoming sick in order to look healthy or beautiful speaks to how profoundly consumptive beauty ideals still shape the world we share.”
The Narrator(s)
John Green. It was a wonderful narration; clear and expressive.
My Thoughts
It’s the Book of the Month for my online bookclub and we had some interesting discussions about the book. Some of which revolved around the whole idea that Green writes in his introduction; “the cure is where the disease is not, and the disease is where the cure is not”.
We lament our ignorance on the topic but we acknowledge our privilege in that we’re ignorant because we don’t need to know about it, because it doesn’t affect us as much, and when it does, we have the cure. We discuss the racism, classism, sexism, and other -isms, that lead to some of us having easy access to the cure and others dying from it. It’s a disgrace to see corporations like J&J profiting off the suffering of others and often directly causing death by witholding cures and treatments.
It is also difficult to read it and realize that this isn’t history; this is still happening right now. We are not living in better times, far from it. This book has given me so much to think about. I’m glad I read it.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
The Catenan Republic-the Hierarchy-may rule the world, but they do not know everything.
I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned three years ago, and that only good fortune has got me into their most prestigious school. I tell them that, when I graduate, I will allow my strength and drive-what they call Will-to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as everyone must do.
I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.
But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.
And that I will never cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.
To survive, though, I will have to rise through the Academy’s ranks, and win. Because if I cannot, those who know my real name will no longer have any use for me.
And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.
A friend talked about these books recently and I got curious!
The Quotes
“Silence is a statement, Diago. Inaction picks a side. And when those lead to personal benefit, they are complicity.”
“There comes a point in every man’s life where he can rail against the unfairness of the world until he loses, or he can do his best in it. Remain a victim, or become a survivor.”
“They know the system is wrong, but they choose not to think or speak up or act because they ultimately hope that in their silence, they will gain. Or at the very least not have to give more than they have already given.”
“They ask something small of you. A thing you would prefer not to do, but is not so terrible. You think you are working your way up, but in fact they are changing you. Moulding you into what they think you should be, one compromise at a time.”
The Narrator(s)
Euan Morton. He did an amazing job for both books! I loved the narration and the different voices for each character. It was very immersive.
My Thoughts
Book 1 – The Will of the Many It reminded me a lot of Red Rising to an extent. Vis was a little bit of a Gary Stu character, to be honest, but it’s also somewhat understandable because of his background and I’ll accept it and hold my suspension of belief. I love the worldbuilding and the concept of the hierarchy magical system. I also love the bromance between Vis and Eidhin. Those were my favorite parts. I find it difficult to trust anyone else in the book for Vis at this point, but I’d trust Eidhin with my life. I do feel like the story was trying to do too much; there were too many things happening and not enough follow-through, but hopefully these are things that will be addressed in future books. Overall, I’m loving the story and characters.
Book 2 – The Strength of the Few This book was a little confusing to listen on audio because now there are several different worlds to follow, and I found it difficult to keep track of them. It got better later into the book once I got a clearer idea of who, what, and where, we were reading about. There were a lot of exciting moments, the chariot scene was so thrilling, but again, I’ll state that we are in danger of Vis becoming too much of a Gary Stu. I also didn’t like the hypocrisy of his actions no matter his justification. Everyone has their justification on why it’s okay for them to do the things, and it doesn’t make it right, much less for Vis. As with the first book, a lot happens and it’s a bit overwhelming. I don’t know where this story is going and how many more books there’s going to be, but a lot of the plot seems overcomplicated at this point. I still really loved the story and I’m still curious about how the story’s going to go, but I may or may not finish the series depending on what comes next.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization.” Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.
What Tom doesn’t tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They’re the universe’s largest and most dangerous panda and they’re in trouble.
It’s not just the Kaiju Preservation Society that’s found its way to the alternate world. Others have, too–and their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.
For the Reading Challenge(s): TBD
The Reason
I’ve been loving John Scalzi’s works and impulsively bought a couple of his books on audio.
The Quotes
“It was stupidly perfect how all my problems were suddenly solved with the strategic application of money.”
“There is a certain type of person who feels like they must be armed at every moment of the day or else the world will come for them in some way. Back home, this is very much not a good way to live.”
“I mean, I don’t know that I was actually planning to possibly die tonight in order to protect a kaiju,” Kahurangi said. “But I might be willing to possibly die to save a kaiju and ten thousand Canadians.”
The Narrator(s)
Wil Wheaton. I did not like his narration at all, to the point that I wanted to DNF and/or finish the book on a print copy. I only hate-listened to the audiobook because I bought the it on a promo and I couldn’t even return it. I didn’t like his inflections and it was incredibly difficult to differentiate the characters so a lot of the time I don’t even know who said what. It also felt like he was reading the book to children with exaggerated voices and expressions, it’s not how natural conversation sounds like. I like Wheaton as an actor and have listened to some of his narration before without much issue, but his work with this book for some reason is horrendous.
My Thoughts
I don’t know if I can give a fair review for this book seeing as how my experience of listening to it on audiobook was so bad. However, I have read a couple of Scalzi’s other works and loved them, and I think I got the gist of this book too and loved parts of it that I got. I will probably reread this book on a print copy some time soon.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
