howlinglibraries's reviews
1828 reviews

 I feel terrible admitting that this book took me a year to finish*, but that's definitely not the author's fault because I loved this! I hit a major fantasy slump for most of this year, but diving back into this book over the past few days has finally given me some hope that I might get back to my fantasy roots a little bit in 2025. 🥰

No, really. I started it on January 7 and finished it on December 30th.
 

Batcat wins again! I love this series. Batcat is so adorable and I love them so much. Their general grumpy attitude of wanting to be left alone with their video games, books, and snacks is SUCH a mood. The mermaids were a trip, too. I need more Batcat, please, Meggie Ramm!

I really enjoyed this! My only complaint was that it felt like it was rushing to wrap things up in one tidy volume when I think it would've worked really well as a series (even a brief one of just a few volumes). I'd have loved more time with Brynmore as a character because he seemed REALLY cool and intrigued me a lot.

This was so cute! The art is really precious and I loved how over the top and silly the characters were. There's a great message in here about being yourself and not pretending to like the things your friends like just so they'll like you more. I'd definitely recommend this for kids (plus any adults who enjoy cutesy graphics like I do).

I don't know why, but I really love plastic surgery themes in horror. It's probably related to my own general fear of medical procedures and the idea of someone having nefarious intentions with another person's body, but it always gets to me! I really enjoyed most of this, though I knocked a star off for the ending. While it didn't surprise me or feel particularly out of place, it felt very rushed and I think another page or two would've gone a long way in tying up the loose ends.

I appreciated the idea behind the book, but the execution left me wanting more. No matter how hard I wanted to like this, I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters or plot. As someone who typically adores dystopian novels and isn't terribly hard to please with them, I really expected to enjoy this more than I did.

Between how beautiful this book is and how excited I was to read it, Krampus had no business being this boring or this disappointing. I really wish this hadn't been my first Brom experience! I'll try other books by him since this one is as old as it is now (13 years old at the time I'm writing this), but it definitely soured my expectations. The story dragged forever, I cared about literally NONE of the characters except Krampus himself, I hated the ending, and the Native American writing was some of the worst I've seen in a long time. This book as a whole felt like I was reading something mediocre penned in the late 80s, not an incredibly hyped book barely over a decade old.

I've seen the film adaptation of this several times over the years after stumbling across it during a deep dive on Netflix a looong time ago (early 2010s, I'd say), but I didn't know until this year that it was based on a novel. When I saw that it was available on Kindle Unlimited, I had to borrow it right away to see how it compared. I'm pleased to say that the film does the book a ton of justice. There are so many verbatim quotes and the plot follows incredibly closely to the original events.

I'm not sure if Senseless is more devastating to read or to watch, but this is a story in either format that has stuck with me as one of the more impactful (and underrated) pieces of media I've experienced. It's bleak, nauseating, and downright paranoia-inducing at times (thinking, "This could be anyone!"). The only complaint I had about the book is that some of Gast's internal monologues drag a bit longer than they need to, but otherwise, I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a truly unique and provocative story.