Book Review: The King of Crows by Libba Bray

After all these ghosts, are we ever never haunted?

After the horrifying explosion that claimed one of their own, the Diviners find themselves wanted by the US government, and on the brink of war with the King of Crows.

While Memphis and Isaiah run for their lives from the mysterious Shadow Men, Isaiah receives a startling vision of a girl, Sarah Beth Olson, who could shift the balance in their struggle for peace. Sarah Beth says she knows how to stop the King of Crows-but, she will need the Diviners' help to do it.

Elsewhere, Jericho has returned after his escape from Jake Marlowe's estate, where he has learned the shocking truth behind the King of Crow's plans. Now, the Diviners must travel to Bountiful, Nebraska, in hopes of joining forces with Sarah Beth and to stop the King of Crows and his army of the dead forever.

But as rumors of towns becoming ghost towns and the dead developing unprecedented powers begin to surface, all hope seems to be lost.

In this sweeping finale, The Diviners will be forced to confront their greatest fears and learn to rely on one another if they hope to save the nation, and world from catastrophe...

Back for the fourth and final book of The Diviners series by Libba Bray. I have only reviewed the even number of the series, it was not a conscious decision, just happens to be the ones I have received e-arcs of. I have given each book in the series 4/5 stars, so the average is pretty easy to figure out. In summary, I have liked all the books but had minor issues with them and was excited to see how this series finished. I'm gonna write this review on the basis that you have read the last three books, so expect spoilers for those but as always I will avoid spoilers for the actual book I'm reviewing.

They are a lot of major characters in this series, and Bray does handle the challenge well. This time the characters are forced to split up meaning that we get a lot of new interactions between characters that have not spent a lot of alone time with each other through the series.

Ling is the character I relate to the most being an asexual Disabled character, having a disabled character in a world where she could have been healed, has always been a little weird, but I have always been glad she wasn't magically clued as that is a hurtful trope when comes to disability. I mean I guess if she had been born with a disability instead of gaining one from illness, then she could not have been healed. For some reason, I felt more for her in this book, and I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm just feeling more sensitive than a few months ago when I read the third book. This book series continues to be Diverse and I think done well. I wish more books were like this, a Diverse group of people fighting ghosts; or more likely trying to save the day.

I ended up listening to the audiobook of this book like I consumed the last book in the series. I'm not been doing a lot of physical reading lately (finally getting back to reading my e-arcs) and being really excited for this book I ended up getting the audiobook once I had been missed the released date. The audiobook as read by January LaVoy is great and a good way to consume this book.

My only complaint is that pacing in the middle was a bit slow, but I also understand why it ended up that way. It just seemed very slow re-pacing to the main action.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for Black Feathers. A satisfying end for this story and characters. They were things I wish we knew more about but I get that realistically not everything can be explored especially when we have so many major characters. This is a great series about ghosts literal and historical. Honestly, I'm not sure how to review the last book in series.

Read: 10/2/2020 to 8/2/2020
Reviewed: 12/2/2020
Published Date: 4th February 2020
Publisher: Atom
Source: Netgalley/Audible
I received this book as an e-arc from the Publisher for free, my reviews are always honest and my own opinion.
Content Warning for Book: Domestic Abuse; Death; Death of children; racism; hate crimes;

Book Review: Kim Reaper Vol. 1: Grim Beginnings by Sarah Graley

Who wouldn't date a Cute Grim Reader?

Part-Time Grim Reaper. Full-Time Cutie!

Like most university students, Kim works a part-time job to make ends meet. Unlike most university students, Kim's job is pretty cool: she's a grim reaper, tasked with guiding souls into the afterlife.

Like most university students, Becka has a super intense crush. Unlike most university students, Becka's crush is on a beautiful gothic angel that frequents the underworld. Of course, she doesn't know that.

Unaware of the ghoulish drama she's about to step into, Becka finally gathers up the courage to ask Kim on a date! But when she falls into a ghostly portal and interrupts Kim at her job, she sets off a chain of events that will pit the two of them against angry cat-dads, vengeful zombies, and perhaps even the underworld itself. But if they work together, they just might make it... and maybe even get a smooch in the bargain.

This is a series that I saw at MCM, but I had spent already too much money. I love Grim Reaper based stories, so I took a photo of the graphic novels to look them up once I had money to spend on comics, but I found the first in Kindle Unlimited that I had a free trial of, so of course I picked this book.

The relationship is developed pretty quickly. They go from Kim not knowing Becka exists, to risking themselves for each other in one comic. Maybe it would work better if it was established that how lonely Kim was. It's hinted I guess. There's oddly not a lot of character time.

The plot is a bit rushed. This graphic novel is made up of four comics. Maybe I'm just too use to comics quite happy spending 10 issues on one story arc.  I think the problem they doesn't feel like much development for plot or the characters.

I do like the art style of these books. It's very cute. There's a lot of visual gags. I generally like the humour. 

An odd criticism that a lot of people have with this book is the diversity. I mean they say the book focus on diversity more than anything else which I don't think is true. This is a graphic novel, diversity is choosing to draw different people in crowd shorts. Yes, it has two Queer main characters, one being a person of colour, with no labels given to explain anyone's background. Not a lot of storytime is actually given to the diversity, it just there. Having diversity is a good point and this is a graphic novel, but I don't get spending so much time talking about the diversity without actually criticising it. Having good diversity doesn't make a good book, and this diversity is okay. It's probably not worth structuring a whole review about.

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for Skull Hearts. this is a fun comic series, with a focus on humour but is lacking in tension. I'm curious as to where this is going and hopefully improved. However, I'll probably be a while before I get around to getting a copy of Volume 2, mainly because I've already spent too money this year on books  and Christmas is coming.

Book Review: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Odd that book adaption is has less detail than the film.

Sometimes, a door is closed for a very good reason...

There is something strange about Coraline's new home. It's not the mist, or the cat that always seems to be watching her, nor the signs of danger that Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, her new neighbours, read in the tea leaves. It's the other house - the one behind the old door in the drawing room. Another mother and father with black-button eyes and papery skin are waiting for Coraline to join them there. And they want her to stay with them. For ever. She knows that if she ventures through that door, she may never come back.

I've had watched the film before reading the book and that was a mistake. In that the film is a pretty accurate adaption, adding stuff and with slight changes. So if you have access to both, then read first then book. Because I knew the beats of the story then they wasn't much to compelled on reading and I think I would have enjoy the book better if I hadn't seen the film.

Coraline is surrounded by weird characters and busy parents. She is a explorer and compels the plot which is nice to see in children's book. With tons of horrifying imagery (that was partly illustrated).

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for button eyes. Coraline is good story and freaky as hell so give to every child you come across.

Book Review: Unrest by Michelle Harrison

You think a teenage boy would be happy about a girl in his room. 

Seventeen-year-old Elliott hasn't slept properly for months. Not since the accident that nearly killed him. Sometimes he half-wakes, paralysed, while shadowy figures move around him. Other times he is the one moving around, while his body lies asleep on the bed. His doctors say sleep paralysis and out of body experiences are harmless - but to Elliott they're terrifying.

Convinced that his brush with death has attracted the spirit world, Elliott secures a job at a reputedly haunted museum, determined to discover the truth. There, he meets the enigmatic Ophelia. But, as she and Elliott grow closer, Elliott draws new attention from the dead. One night, during an out of body experience, Elliott returns to bed to find his body gone. Something is occupying it, something dead that wants to live again . . . and it wants Ophelia, too . . . 

This is the story of a boy who died and rises again so now the Dead hounded his dreams. Or more like they make him astral project, giving him unrestiful nights.

Elliott makes an likeable, appealing protagonist.The supporting characters are okay, there is a sprinkle of stereotypes as minor antagonists. The romance is somewhat decent. The mythos of the ghosts was done well. It took from a lot of things to have realistic rules that worked for the plot.

I liked the plot mixed with the setting. While it is set at museum, its actually a collection of old buildings making more a fake tour from different time periods. Elliot chooses to work there as they have started during ghost tours at night as the buildings are meant to be haunted. There's also mystery that comes from working at the museum. I enjoyed the journey of this and the solution was fulfilling.

It also deals with grief, Elliot having lost his mum before his accident and his dad failing to cope after she gones.

I listened to the audio book version narrated by Paul Chequer. He did a good job of bringing Elliot to live, this book being in first person.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for drawing henna. This was a decent YA with supernatural stuff.

Book Review: Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor

My mother doesn't like it when I mimic the Night Vale style.

Night Vale is a small desert town where all the conspiracy theories you've ever heard are actually true. It is here that the lives of two women, with two mysteries, will converge.

Nineteen-year-old Night Vale pawn shop owner Jackie Fierro is given a paper marked 'KING CITY' by a mysterious man in a tan jacket. She can't seem to get the paper to leave her hand, and no one who meets this man can remember anything about him. Jackie is determined to uncover the mystery of King City before she herself unravels.

Diane Crayton's son, Josh, is moody and also a shape shifter. And lately Diane's started to see her son's father everywhere she goes, looking the same as the day he left years earlier. Josh, looking different every time Diane sees him, shows a stronger and stronger interest in his estranged father, leading to a disaster Diane can see coming, even as she is helpless to prevent it.

Diane's search to reconnect with her son and Jackie's search for her former routine life collide as they find themselves coming back to two words: 'KING CITY'. It is King City that holds the key to both of their mysteries, and their futures . . . if they can ever find it.

 Do you like the Night Vale Podcast? Then you probably like this book. The thing is that this book is very much written in the the style of the podcast and I have no idea what someone whose not familiar with the podcast would think it about it. Compared to other books, it would be jarring I imagine.
 
 It's interesting to see this town from another point of view, other than Cecil's (or whoever somehow took over the local radio signal). He's still there as a character and radio presenter with radio updates through out the novel, with the latest happenings in Night Vale. It also made me realise how annoying Cecil's infatuation with Carlos can be. It's not that charming when written down.

With it not being tramped inside a radio booth, sending the latest intern to their dea...to report on what's happening, we get to see a lot of Night Vale fixtures for ourselves such as the library and surprisingly where our protagonists work.

The characters are appealing and very real people despite being a very surreal setting. They deal both with the strangeness of Night Vale and struggles we all have or can have, like raising children. I do like the dynamics between the most important characters to this story.

Overall, I gave this book four out of five stars for absentee fathers. This is the Welcome to the Night Vale Novel, it very much of an extension of the podcast. The story is contend within the novel, but reference things that have been going on in the podcast since it's start. The thing is I have no idea what someone who hasn't listen to the podcast would think of it. It doesn't really matter as the podcast is free and great listening. The novel is good reading and I got the same experience from it as I do with the podcast. You should definitely pick it up, if you regularly visit Night Vale or you just a tourist.

I got this for review off NetGalley and it was published by Orbit on 20th October 2015. 
(Though, tune in this Saturday to hear my story with my odd experience of pre-ordering the special edition of this novel).

Book Review: Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

America, the inventor of White people.

After a supernatural showdown with a serial killer, Evie O'Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. Now that the world knows of her ability to 'read' objects, and therefore, read the past, she has become a media darling, earning the title, 'America's Sweetheart Seer'. But not everyone is so accepting of the Diviners' abilities . . . 

Meanwhile, mysterious deaths have been turning up in the city, victims of an unknown sleeping sickness. Can the Diviners descend into the dreamworld and catch a killer?

This the sequel to The Diviners, I sort of have a video review of it (the things you do for YouTube). We continue to be in the swinging 20s (we will be back there in less than five years so who needs a time travel. Also books). Bray does a good job of capturing this time period and shows all negatives whilst having fun with the setting.

While sticking to the same characters, this book forces more on Henry and Ling Chan in this novel, though probably not by much but it does feel like their novel, with Theta singing in the background. These characters on them on are entertaining, but together they are perfect and have a great plot behind them.

The plot is complex, whilst continuing the plot from the last book, there is a different threat to deal with. It feels a lot like crime/thriller which it pretty much is but with ghosts and stuff. It's a pretty good one. I think we get the right balance of the individual plot and overarching series plot.

Overall, I give this book four out of Fives stars for Yorick Performances. I am excited about the next book in the series which I'm hoping isn't going to have the same (or longer) wait time for that book. There is a complex backstory going on and I want answers. Also, the characters are compelling and I want to know what goes down with them. In summary, I want more and you should read this book if it all sounds appealing to you.

 I got this book for review from NetGalley and it is being published by Atom on the 25th August 2015.

Book Review: While the Others Sleep by Tom Becker

I slept like a baby after reading thing. Though, a baby with insomnia, but that's normal.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Alfie can't sleep. He's been sent to the sanatorium to "get better".

And it's a terrifying place.

Especially at night...when everyone else is asleep.

Alfie soon discovers that being awake is the most dangerous condition of all.

You'll find out why. But don't expect to sleep afterwards.

I liked this book, right till the end because I really don't get what going on there. The conclusion of this book is unsatisfying and confusing. There were questions raised I don't think were answered. The twists were dumb.

The writing seems to be too modern. I can understand this with this being YA and aimed at inexperienced readers but this story doesn't fully work in it's time setting to begin with. Asylums are talked about as if they are a thing of the distant past but this is going on right now, in the hell day of them being terrible. 

 Overall,  I give this book 2 out of 5 stars for night walking. This story was okay, but in terms of horror, it's not scary and is very cliché in a nonsensical way.  There is some interesting imagery but that's about it. ALSO WHO THE HELL SET FIRE TO THE HOUSE?

Book Review: Glimpse by Kendra Leighton

This is actually the second book inspired by Alfred Noyes’ The Highwayman and only read it with this book.

The highwayman came riding –
Riding – riding –
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door

Liz just wants to be normal. Her life is anything but.

Seven years ago Liz lost her mother and ten years’ worth of memories. When she inherits the infamous Highwayman Inn, she hopes the move will be a fresh start. Then she meets Zachary. Zachary who haunts her by night and in dreams; who makes her question everything she is and wants to be; who seems scarcely real – yet makes her feel so alive.

 I like the plot of this book. It also takes the stance of that seeing ghost would actually be a pain in the arse. The way the ghost work is a interesting take with just a parts of them being visible and more of overwhelming feeling when they're present. I think that was probably my favourite part of the book.

The character were all quite distinct but the plot does relay too much on characters being basically insane. Liz's issues with her mother was good addition. The romance was alright, I'm never person to ask about this so it all I can think to say.

The plot is okay, there a few things that let it down. Liz is bit too clueless in the name of the plot and
 the ending is a bit dodgy in the moral sense. I can't say anything else about that without it being a major spoiler.

Overall, I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars for bowls of bones. The ghost are awesome but there was one rule I didn't get. Things were a bit slow and there was a few plotholes such as why did certain characters do the bidding of a certain character in the first place. It is worth a read if you're into ghost and sort of retelling of poems.

I got this off NetGalley for review. It published by Much-in-Little

Book Review: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke

Who doesn’t find evil sexy?

You stop fearing the devil when you're holding his hand . . .

Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White's sleepy, seaside town . . . until River West comes along. River rents the guesthouse behind Violet's crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Violet's grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who likes coffee and who kisses you in a cemetery . . . Violet's already so knee-deep in love, she can't see straight. And that's just how River likes it.

This book has a very smooth style and has a charm to it. I found myself very engrossed by it. It lives in the shadow of the Jazz age, I guess the style is sort of Gatsbist.

The characters all have weird names for some reason, except the ones with the neglectful arty parents. Okay, not all of them but you have a Sunshine and a male River. They all right, mostly terrible people but they’re mostly teenagers and most teenagers are terrible people. They are strangely lovable bunch.  

This is a book with a supernatural side, sort of original.  Odd stuff is going on and horrific imagery. The end is a bit anti-climactic. There is meant to be duology. You could walk away; I don’t feel desperate to know what happens after. But I would eventually have some answers given.

Overall, I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars for Furry teeth. I enjoyed reading it, even if I did get sort of distracted and skimmed through the last chapter in the middle of reading the book. I would recommend this for those who like well-written magic books.

I got this off Netgalley for a review. It’s being published by Faber & Faber on 3rd April 2014.

Book Review: The Last Werewolf Glen Duncan

If I ever become a werewolf, I would target people who talk before they think as my victims. Its been one of those days.

YOU'RE THE LAST. I'M SORRY. THE END IS COMING.

For two centuries Jacob Marlowe has wandered the world, enslaved by his lunatic appetites and tormented by the memory of his first and most monstrous crime. Now, the last of his kind, he knows he can't go on. But as Jake counts down to demise, a violent murder and an extraordinary meeting plunge him straight back into the desperate pursuit of life.


This book was alright. It’s the start of trilogy that recently has finished, it didn't leave me running out to find the next one (I did check if the library had it, they did not).

It features of an old werewolf who have become endangered and then a organisation decides to just fuck it and killed them all because eradicate a whole sub-race (most would say species but don't like that the biology of that. It is more Hybrid than actual species- I could go on but won't. It's topic for another post) of humanity is going to be positive. Jacob doesn't care if he dies. I didn't care if he died.

The characters are generally unlikable. Not because they kill people, just because most are defined by what they are/do so are boring. Except Harley, poor idiotic Harley who in old age gave up reading which is stupid. Any sympathy for Jacob I had just slowly disappeared. The characters aren't very distinctive from each. Also this is tiny bit of a spoiler so still want to read this and be spoiler free do not high-light the following. [ There is a case of instanter love, it could be played off as a supernatural thing. I mean doesn't play well for were/vamp books to have such things since that other certain book. Yes, Duncan if you reading this (which I doubt but who knows) I just compared your book to Twilight. I mean its not my biggest issue though. I just sigh and read on now. ]

It meant to be journal but it just reads as first-personal narration of life as it happens mostly. It also has parts and chapters. It has a few memorable scenes. It’s sort of poemy. This also random reference to a Robert Browning poem I think. I mean it exact same line; expect the Pronouns are different. But frankly it is a line that I found myself repeating out loud. You almost can't help yourself. And no I won't tell which one. Read all his poems and then this book to find out (or you could just search through my BookTube channel till you find the one that involves the same Robert Browning poem. My first suggestion is funner).

The actual mythology was interesting. Based off common werewolf myth, but with a slight spin. It typical lack of females (another thing I could discuss about werewolves; I have theories,) and full-moon transformations. 

Overall, I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars for smelly c*nts (you could make a drinking game out of how many times that word was used. I think 3 specifically to do with smelling them). It was alright book, definitely not the worst werewolf book I've ever read. I would continue the series if they fell into my lap one day; with my whole TBR guilt that's probably only the only way I will finish the trilogy. I would recommend this book to werewolf lovers, who prefer high action plot than developed characters (I could see the effort for both but characters just fell flat for me).