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Russian Dolls Screaming in the Dark

One of the best and most exciting reads I had this year was Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street , that's for sure. But it is super hard to review because the phrase "the less you know about it before reading, the better" has never held more weight than for this book. So, I'm aware that I'm moving on dangerous ground here and will try to review accordingly. I also have to say that I personally did know nothing about this book when I started reading it and that was something that truly paid off. I had it on my e-reader because it probably was on some "year's most anticipated horror" list and I noted it and then found a good deal somewhere and purchased it, adding yet another title to my ever growing and never ending TBR-pile. When a few months later a book friend of mine on goodreads posted that she started reading this but feels uncomfortable about reading it alone and I took this spontaneous opportunity to do a buddy read - because...

Don't Miss TorCon in Two Weeks!

People! The digital (and free!) author convention TorCon which gives you the chance to chat with or just watch your favorite TOR-authors chatting will take place between the 10th - 13th June this year and PLEASE just take a look at some of the great names participating: Catriona Ward, Charlie Jane Anders, Alix E. Harrow, Aliette de Bodard, Cassandra Khaw, Thomas Olde Heuvelt and many more...

...the Soul of Wit - Short Reviews

Hej! I know I haven't been posting regularly lately and when I did only to hastily compile a few short reviews, sorry for that, I was kind of busy... But I do have a couple of fresh ideas for new stuff here on the blog; I am planing a review series for the buddy reads I have been doing with two friends from the general orbit of the Otherland Bookstore, a new column about guilty pleasures that I developped during the hard lockdown - that we're hopefully done with- and there is one author interview in the making! I hope it will all go smoothly and you can see the results as soon as I can make it! Until then, here is the latest wrap up for you to enjoy!

Any Sufficiently Advanced Magic... Reviewing C.T. Rwizi's "Requiem Moon"

This review is on the second installment of C.T. Rwizi's Scarlett Odyssey Books. For the debut installment of the same title please see my previous review . I'm pretty shocked why C. T. Rwizi's masterpiece, the Scarlett Odyssey Saga isn’t a bestseller yet! Readers seriously should be cheering, shouting on the rooftops, agonizing over the devastating ending of this second installment and suspense-nail-biting over whether or not there will ever be a continuation, a third book… Because although Requiem Moon seriously offers everything a fantasy reader’s heart desires, it ends on a nasty cliffhanger and we demand a sequel. Requiem Moon picks up the story of prequel Scarlet Odyssey : Having finally gotten his status as a male mystic confirmed by the Yerezi Queen, Salo and his crew - she-warrior Ilapara, young atmech Tuk and finally Alinata, a gorgeous Asazi in the service of the said queen - finally make it to Yonte Saire, the Jungle City, where he is supposed to complete a pi...

...the Soul of Wit

Over the past year I have been steadily reading a thriller or two monthly and I think I could get used to reading more crime - if they don't involve much drama and relationship stuff. On the other hand I realized that I don't read much horror anymore but totally miss it, so I might in future up the terror dosage a little and look for books who can be placed within horror as well as crime. I need to do some research but I'm optimistic I'll find plenty books that fit the description. But before, here are the latest short reviews of other freakness, enjoy them!

Reviewing the "Rewind or Die" Series: Books 3 and 4

I'm still holding on to my quest of reading and reviewing the complete “Rewind or Die” series for the Otherland Newsletter; a sum total of 23 retro-horror paperbacks (I recently realized that the series isn't even complete yet, so it's still counting!) inspired by 70s, 80s and 90s horror movies. Ever since I first found out about this series I am dreaming about these colorful little books with amazing cover art and extremely over the top storylines. Tongue-in-cheek, bizarro, absurd, gore-splatter, wild ride or pulpy are terms that come to mind describing this incredibly fun series that I will happily read and discuss for you guys in the near future.  

...the Soul of Wit

Enjoy the latest short reviews!   The Silent Patient Alex Michaelides   Famous painter Alicia Berenson and her husband Gabriel are seemingly the perfect couple and live a dream life in a beautiful house - until one night she shoots him five times in the face and never ever spoke again. Now Theo Faber, a new therapist at the Grove, the psychiatric unit she resides in ever since the incident, is determined to try his luck and make the legendary "silent patient" open up. What I learned from Michaelides' gripping psycho-thriller is above all that if a person looks as beautiful as a Greek god, beware of them. Seriously, all problems in this book issue from people described as such and maybe it is one of the points of the book that if things look too good to be true, there must be something fishy involved.

Attention! Adrian Tchaikovsky's Latest Space Opera "Shards of Earth" Coming Soon

Secretly I have this nagging fear that as I get older, I might be losing my ability to picture fantastic worlds in my head and the joy this ability gives me. So I was a little nervous about starting to read Adrian Tchaikovsky's massive, action loaded space opera Shards of Earth because it is exactly the kind of book for which that ability is vital. The first installment of the "Final Architects" series is set in a universe which is deeply marked by a great war with intriguing adversaries; the moon sized, mysterious Architects. This war has ended with the help of psychic-like humans who can communicate with these moons, the Intermediaries, but years later there are new traces from the Architects and the fear is great they are back. I have to admit that I had a little help, though - the glossary and the historical timeline at the end of the book which list and briefly explain worlds, characters, ships, main political movements and species and for which I am extremely grate...

Nothing Is Tender Here! Agustina Bazterrica's English Debut Will Shatter Your Soul

[...] she didn't care, all she wanted was to go back to a normal life, to life before the Transition. Never ever has a book of mere two hundred pages weigh as heavy as Agustina Bazterrica's cannibal dystopia Tender is the Flesh ! Oh-My-God. I haven't had such an intense reading experience in a very long time. This book grabbed me, it sucked me in, got under my skin and stayed there. Every sentence is meaningful, every single development shocking in Bazterrica's English debut. Surely this book is likely to win a place amongst other dystopian classics like Burgess' A Clockwork Orange or even Huxley's Brave New World. It is a really big deal for me to compare a book to Brave New World in its greatness (Remember my article from the Otherlander's blog a few years ago?) and I would lovingly write a comparative essay on the similarities as well as differences between the two books. Nevertheless, I don't want this review to be based solely on a comparison - ...