This month held a lot of mediocre reads for me and I am a bit bummed about it! Hopefully as the weather warms up, so will my reading choices! I think I will start getting back to my literary fiction roots because I know I can count on that genre to always be good!
I have read a few of Liz Nugent's books and they were very dark...but WOW this one was DARK! Every trigger warning possible is in this one.
Sally Diamond, follows her father's word literally when he unexpectedly passes away. Incredible twist happens after this but I don't want to spoil anything! I knew I could rely on Nugent for extremely dark, heavy, almost repulsive characters and this book hit that mark and then some! Some parts were actually too much for me, and I can stomach pretty much anything. I was shocked I didn't hear more about this book because booktok and bookstagram usually gravitate toward dark, twisted books.
Dolly Alderton can do no wrong in my eyes - I will literally read anything from this woman.
Essentially a post-mortem on Andy and Jen's relationship from Andy's POV. We know from page 1 that they have broken up but we follow Andy's journey through loss and trying to rationalize Jen's decision to breakup with him. Alderton's writing always manages to make me laugh and strike unnervingly deep all in a short period of time. Her books are such a joy, and I always have a great reading experience! Alderton wrote with such accuracy and poignant insight that you honestly just have to marvel at her genius!
This book has the bones of a great story but I ended up liking the premise of this book more than the actual book and writing execution itself.
Everyone knows the nursery rhyme about Leonora Hope murdering her family, but when home health aide, Kit, gets assigned to Leonora as a care-taker, she starts to wonder if the nursery rhyme is truly gossip or if there is some truth to it...
After reading a few of Sager's works, I know that he is known for his twists at the end of the book but I felt the twists all happening within a two minute time period was excessive here. I also didn't think the dark, gothic atmosphere was played upon enough.
A true crime, incredibly detailed police procedural event recounting on the infamous Polly Klaas case. A must-read for any true crime aficionado.
Cross writes a very thorough account of not just the abduction itself but clearly has done a lot of research in recounting the police and FBIs courses of action in the aftermath of this event. Following along the trail of evidence in this infamous case was captivating and horrifying. I was unaware of just how much this case and how it was handled has impacted the overall structure of policing cases like this. I thought the author handled the sensitive, traumatic subject matter in a professional rationale manner and it made me respect the writing more.
The third book in the Crescent City series by Sarah J Maas was, for me personally, underwhelming and disappointing to say the least.
Even with the jaw-dropping ending of HOSAB, this book begins essentially at the same point with significantly less emotion and tension. SJM's writing and plot hole riddled third book in this series was shockingly uninteresting and vastly different in my opinion. To be quite honest, I was immensely relived that it was over and that I never have to read it again.