mcgbreads's reviews
1125 reviews

The author reached out to me and offered a copy of this novella, so thanks to Daniel Dean for the access to this. As always, this is my honest review. 

The book description appealed to me and I can honestly say this story was nothing like I expected. It's creative and I appreciate that about it. However, it didn't have enough meat on its bones for me, so it's around 2.5 stars for me, rounded up to 3. 

Mostly, I feel like it lacked horror elements and punch. As it is, it's kind of mind-bendy and the horror comes more from the unknown and lack of logic, but that's not particularly scary to me, so I needed something more. 

In terms of writing style, I think the inner monologues and dialogues need improvement. The characters exclaimed a lot, which stood out to me for some reason, and it felt like this needed editing because the structure was a bit choppy at times. It could also just be that the author is still developing their craft and that's fine; I hope he continues writing stories. 

Overall, this is a novella that you can read in one sitting and you'll enjoy it if you like winter settings, parallel dimensions, characters who are uprooted from their reality without any explanation, and not being given all the answers. 

ARC review; thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the access to this ebook. Pub date: Mar 04, 2025.

First of all, I have to say: if someone sewed live cockroaches into my pillowcase so they get free while I'm sleeping, that would be the last thing they do. 

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I loved Tender Is the Flesh, so I was excited to see this is coming up in 2025 and was very happy to get the ARC. I don't know how to feel about it now that I've read it, though... I can confidently say it won't be for everyone but if it works, it works. It didn't work for me 100%, mainly because I'm not a fan of stream-of-consciousness writing, fragmented narratives, and extremely vague worldbuilding. Still, I couldn't stop reading. 

This is set in a world ravaged by climate disaster, so it's post-apocalyptic. In this world, there's a convent that takes in stray women, and if they're not sick, they get to join the ranks and potentially rise through them. There's a hierarchy, and it's a truly awful, bleak place that thrives on torture and pain, but it's better than being out there. That's the setting. 

We only have one POV and it's one of the "unworthy." We follow her daily life as she navigates the dynamics of the convent, which have changed all the women into cruel, unempathetic animals, and tries to recover memories of her life before the convent. One day, she finds a woman in the woods who changes everything when she's taken in. 

Most of the book is confusing, uncomfortable to read, and just... strange. The last 20 to 30% was my favorite and the ending worked for me. As I said, it's very stream-of-consciousness and vague, but if you ride the wave, it's an interesting reading experience. The horror is quite gross, Bazterrica is very good at that, and there are themes below the surface, it's just a bit difficult to parse them out. It's one of those stories where a lot of things are up for your interpretation. 

Right now, I'm not sure if I loved this or not, but I didn't hate it and I'd say that if you liked Tender Is the Flesh, this is worth checking out. 

Beautiful, heartbreaking, raw. It's really hard-hitting.

Oh, I looooved this. It was very creepy but also a lot of fun to get through because it was just so creative. It's a dark fantasy book that I'll definitely come back to. 

ARC review; thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Delacorte Press for the access to this ebook. Pub Date: Jan 07, 2025

Okay, so I ate this up. I read it in three sittings (mainly because my reading got interrupted by other stuff) and, overall, I really enjoyed it. It's a medium-paced mystery that grips you enough to keep you engaged and thinking about who could've done what. The twists won't blow your mind or leave you reeling, and there are no dramatic, life-threatening scenes, so don't go in expecting that, but I think this works really well for what it is. The writing is very, very nice, the setting is immersive, and I liked the characters and the baggage they carried. I also liked the little dash of romance we get in this story. 

I would recommend this as a solid mystery to anyone, so keep an eye on it in January. I'm not sure what heavy mystery readers will think about this one, but as someone who picks up mysteries very casually, this worked perfectly for me and I enjoyed my time with it.

ARC review; thanks to NetGalley, Kensington Publishing, and Erewhon Books for the access to this ebook. Pub date: Jan 21 2025. 

First of all, this cover is STUNNING. I love it. You will like this if you like slow-paced stories, witchy magic, folk horror elements, Appalachian settings, dual timelines, and nuanced characters. 

I personally wasn't a huge fan of the story. This claims to be a queer fantasy, but I don't think it fits that description. Yes, there are fantastical elements because there are witches and magic, and there's a dash of queer romance, but it's more a mix of literary and historical fiction with mystery, magic, and a little folk horror. 

The writing is lovely, I really enjoyed the prose, but the plot left a lot to be desired in my opinion. It felt very slow and meandering, and I just wasn't gripped by what was happening. I liked a lot of elements of this, mainly the writing style, Appalachian setting, folk elements, and characters, but I didn't like much of what was happening. 

The commentary about environmentalism and other themes felt surface-level, the romance felt thrown in, and it didn't make sense to me (I think they should've just been friends or platonic because they had no romantic chemistry at all), and the constant references to Christian scripture got old for me very quickly. That's a preference thing, though. I personally don't like when religion is a big element unless there's commentary around it. 

Overall, I don't think this will work for everyone, especially not if they're expecting fantasy, but it will work splendidly for a lot of people. I just wasn't one of them. I still think it's a solid debut and I will keep my eye on this author to see if their future work is better suited for me cause I already love their writing style and creativity. 

ARC review; Thanks to NetGalley and Silver Thistle Press for the access to this ebook. 

I loved this short story! It mixes historical fiction and the paranormal super well, and it explores the horrors of war as well as the consequences of blind greed and just being an unempathetic, selfish human being. 

The writing was very nice and descriptive, which made this feel immersive. I wish there was more background and information about the main character, but it still works super well as a short story. I think I would've read at least 100 more pages about this. 

ARC review; thanks to the people at Summit Books for sending me NetGalley access to this ebook. Pub date: Jan 28 2025. 

I don't rate memoirs and even though the title says it's not a memoir, it's a memoir. The author is writing about her life and herself. 

What I can say is that this is a short, quick read that will keep you interested if you want to know what the life of a nepo baby actress is like. Lola Kirke has a good sense of humor and it came across in her writing, which I appreciated. 

I wasn't particularly gripped by this overall but that's mainly because I just wasn't as interested as I thought I would be. I didn't get much out of it personally, but it was entertaining and easy to get through.

ARC review; thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins Focus, and Harper Muse for the access to this ebook. 

I quickly found that this wasn't for me because it wasn't what I expected. I expected a time-traveling story with suspense and hard-hitting character introspection around grief and finding yourself once you realize you've been molding yourself to whatever partner you're with. 

While the character does find herself even though it took her husband dying, her sister telling her that she changes depending on the man she's with, and accidental time travel to realize and actually do something about her lack of authenticity, it bothered me that her journey involved another romantic relationship. 

Overall, this lacked depth and interest to me. A lot of that is a me problem, though. I think a lot of people will love this book if they go into it wanting and expecting a feel-good historical romance with a happy ever after, and I definitely recommend it if you're looking for something like that.

ARC review; thanks to NetGalley Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Del Rey for the access to this ebook. Pub date: Jan 28 2025. 

This book got me at first, I was IN. I liked the vibes and the characters, specifically the two girls, and their powers were very interesting to me. I thought this would be a good haunted house horror story with girls who can see dead people and people's emotions at the core of it. Unfortunately, it lost me and it didn't get me back. 

I 100% agree with people who say that Aunt Clara feels like a female version of Count Olaf. She's a despicable character, but she isn't written in a serious way. She's a murderer, she's vain and cruel, but I never once felt the gravity of how evil she was supposed to be. I was told she was evil, but she spoke and acted like a cartoon villain the entire time. How am I supposed to take her seriously? The ghosts were not scary at all either, though I liked the dynamic they had with the girls. No thrills or scares for me. 

Overall, I was expecting one thing but got something entirely different. It read YA, it was silly instead of dark, and it dragged so much in the middle because a few out-of-pocket things happened and we spent so much time on that for no reason. I was hoping to love this, so I'm incredibly disappointed. 

I would've liked this *so much better* if it was darker. When the ghost haunting started, I thought Aunt Clara was going to be driven slowly insane by them as karmic punishment for the things she did (but she wasn't even scared of them! Even though we're told she was at first, it didn't FEEL LIKE IT cause she didn't ACT LIKE IT. She acted like she was inconvenienced by them more than anything). I thought that she would have more depth and, when she started breaking due to the haunting, we would get more insights from her and maybe some regret or guilt though it would've been too little too late. I thought the girls' powers would be explored further. I thought, I thought, I thought.