gabberjaws's reviews
540 reviews

There's a throwaway line about 53% of the way into the book that let me exactly what was going on here, and I'd like to thank David Attenborough and my love for nature documentaries for giving me that little revelation. Actually, I don't know if Mr. Attenborough was even the host of that doc, but I'm gonna thank him anyway because I love that old guy.

I digress.

Much like T. Kingfisher herself, I too read The Fall of the House of Usher when I was a kid, and therefore do not remember much of it. I do remember the basic plot and based on my admittedly foggy memory of it, I think Kingfisher struck very close to the source material in terms of structure.

Narrator travels to Usher Manor because friend's sister is dying. Sister dies. Sister comes back to life all stronk as fuck. Narrator and dead woman's brother destroy the manor and flee. You get the gist.

Where Kingfisher deviates from the original Poe tale is in the layers.

And my god, what delicious layers they were. This short little tale is filled to the brim with Kingfisher's signature humor - which felt comforting, but never managed to distract you from how fucking weird everything was. And, as I might have mentioned in previous reviews, Kingfisher does weird so well. Everything was creepy, and odd, and more than a little fucked up, and as comforting as Easton and kan wisecracking was, the weird never went away.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick read, and Kingfisher brought so much depth to the story with her additions. The characters - Easton, Ms Potter and Angus, in particular - were charming, as usual. The horror was weird and wacky and unsettling, and made this feel like a wholly original piece of work, despite me knowing that this was a retelling. If you like weird, creepy little horrors and spooky retellings, you'll love this.

PS:

I spent almost the entire book thinking to myself that T.Kingfisher would adore Mexican Gothic, and I was super pleased to discover in her author's note that, not only had she read and loved it, but MG had inspired the horror element in this! What fun.

Friends, I hope if you ever think a demon is trying to possess you, you’ll take it a little more seriously than this book’s MC did.

This was really engrossing, and a super straight forward account of a demonic possession. But besides the

commentary on women needing to be a certain way to be accepted by men (and society at large)

, the book didn’t do too much with it.

Amanda’s nonchalant attitude towards the possession made things feel sorta... mundane, and I couldn't really find myself caring about anyone or anything. Like, oh no. The demon is shopping. How awful.

TL;DR:interesting premise. Meh execution. Engrossing writing. 

I want to start off the review by saying that my absolute favourite thing about this series is how firmly the author refuses to hide behind the racist refrain that diversity in regency stories is anachronistic. There's a Black MC; there's a biracial, brown MC; there's a disabled supporting character (whose disability we actually forget about sometimes because it doesn't define his character); and there have been austistic characters. Finding out 

Susan and Eliza were a couple IN THE TEXT. AS CANON. 

instead of it remaining subtext the whole time was the cherry on top.

Death at the Manor is, due to its gothic vibes, an edgier and slightly saucier entry to this franchise. Don't get me wrong, it's still an incredibly cozy mystery novel, just like its predecessors, but it's definitely a little darker than it's older siblings.

I'm still not 100% sure how much I liked DatMs foray into the gothic fields, but thought the mystery was very well done. The Howdunit was pretty obvious from the get-go, but the Who and Why dunits didn't become really obvious until about 60% of the way through. Which is another thing I like about this series; it's hard to guess the culprit based on vibes, like with most other cozy mysteries. We, the readers, have to examine and collect evidence right alongside the MCs. It's great!

I also really enjoyed getting to see things from Ofelia's perspective a little more. We're getting to see her step off of Lily's coat-tails and become an active investigator, and we're also getting to step out of Lily's head and see things from outside her field of view, which is also really nice.

The biggest let-down in this book for me was probably Captain Hartley's absence. His character lends a bit of levity and cheekiness to the cast that no one else quite fills. Not even Ned, though he tries. I think the tone of this novel could have really used some of the Hartley charm remind us of the series' less serious roots. But maybe that's just me. 

 Becky Chambers really just sat down and went "I'm gonna give my readers a comforting hug via book" huh?

There are books that come to you at the right time, and A Psalm for The Wild-Built was absolutely one of those. I've had an incredibly stressful month and a half and this was exactly what I needed. I understood sibling Dex's worries, fears and anxieties about their purpose at a core level, and Mosscap's gentle reassurances were a soothing balm to my soul.

TL;DR: This was short, incredibly comforting, and made me cry. 10/10 

This is super dry, repetitive, and definitely feels like it's gonna have a Classic Terry Non-ending, too. I'm calling it.

This was Pretty Little Liars (but good) meets Gossip Girl meets Get Out. Before I read this book, if anyone had told me that these three things would make a good combo, I'd have laughed them out of the room. But man, the execution on this was sublime.

There's not a lot I can say about this book without giving something away. I think it's best to go into this with as little information as you can.

The only reason I docked half a star was because the characters took a little too long to figure out the WhyDunnit of the big mystery, and honestly, in the year of our lord 2022, it should have been their very first guess. 

 I know this book was written for literal children, but Pennypacker didn't need to pull her punches quite so much. This was supposed to be a poignant tale about a boy and his animal companion learning that it might be time to go their separate ways, as well as a story about the unseen victims of war, and it was NOWHERE near as gut-wrenching as it should have been.

Instead the middle was meandering and too-long, and the ending was too-quick and unsatisfying. 

This could have very easily been a 3 / 3.5 star rating, but alas, the MC didn't actually solve this mystery using the power of deduction. She solved one, I'll give her that, but the mastermind behind the CENTRAL MYSTERY OF THE BOOK just walks up to the heroine and ... monologues. Confesses to the whole thing, for no goddamned reason. They weren't even a suspect lmao.

I'll probably still read the rest of the series (It's an easy read and I enjoy my cozy mysteries, sue me) but if you want to read a cozy mystery series that follows a widow in Regency England that does the mystery better, then please consider reading Katharine Schellman's Lily Adler Mystery. 

 DNF at 51%

98% of the 51% I read of this book was torture porn. Not a good sign, no?

Save yourself the trouble, friends.