audiobooks

Review: A Drop of Venom by Sajni Patel

~ megs14malloy

A Drop of VenomA Drop of Venom by Sajni Patel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars**

A Drop of Venom is a recent YA Fantasy release pitched as a retelling of the Medusa myth, steeped in Indian mythology, and happily, it is exactly that.

This story follows 16-year old, Manisha, whose naga people have seen their lives decimated because of the King’s army. Manisha was sent to a holy temple to become a priestess, where it was believed she would be safe.

But for girls, there’s rarely any place that is actually safe.

We also follow 17-year old, Pratyush, who is a Monster Slayer and one of the greatest assets of the King. Yes, the very same King who has terrorized Manisha’s people.

When Pratyush and Manisha meet when he visits the Temple, sparks fly and both see in each other a glimpse of the peaceful life that could be possible. Unfortunately, for them both, fortune is not on their side.

Before their relationship even has a chance to get off the ground, tragedy strikes Manisha. A visitor to the temple, a General in the King’s army, brutally rapes her and throws her off the side of the mountain into a churning den of vipers, where he expects her to die.

But she doesn’t die. In fact, she rises, stronger than ever, with a new set of unimaginable powers.

Pratyush’s next assignment leads him on a hunt for a hideous monster said to be killing and maiming men in the countryside. Little does he know this very monster is actually the girl he wishes to someday marry.

I liked this story, I did. Please don’t let my 3.5-star rating discourage you. Patel’s writing is strong and I appreciate the tough topics that she examined, as well as the rich cultural influences that gave such depth and beauty to this tale.

I loved the idea of a Medusa retelling and I loved watching Manisha regain her strength, power and new courage as the story got farther along.

For me though, I did have a bit of an uneven reading experience with this one overall. There were times I was so into it and then other times when I was bored. There’s no better way to explain it.

Additionally, at times I did find some of the plot elements difficult to track, and definitely felt the second half was stronger than the start. Also, I wasn’t completely sold on the alternating perspectives.

We’re mostly getting the story from Manisha’s POV, so when we would randomly switch to Pratyush, I didn’t care about him. I didn’t feel like I had the chance to get to know him in the way that I got to know Manisha, so I sort of felt like it either should have been more equal in their narrative time, or he shouldn’t have been a perspective we read from at all.

I think I may actually have enjoyed this more if we just had Manisha’s perspective.

With this being said, even though I have some slight nit-picky things I wasn’t crazy about, this is still a good book. It actually seems like the kind of story, that if you’re the right Reader, and you read it at the right time, it could be incredibly powerful for you.

I can see that potential. This is a solid Fantasy story, with strong world creation and compelling ideas. I am definitely interested in reading more from this author in the future.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Disney Hyperion, Rick Riordan Presents and Disney Audio for providing me with copies to read and review. This definitely won’t be my last Sajni Patel!

View all my reviews

Review: Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain #1) by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

~ megs14malloy

Assistant to the VillainAssistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

I had zero expectations going into Assistant to the Villain. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up enjoying it. Vibes: cute and cozy!

The ending was a wee bit of a cliffhanger, so I will definitely be reading the sequel. I can’t wait for it actually. There’s something about this type of Cozy Romantic Fantasy that screams Winter Read to me.

In this story we meet Evie Stage, who due to an ill family member is in desperate need of steady employment. So when a mishap, or perhaps we should call it a Meet Cute, with a local Villain leads to a job offer, she can’t turn it down.

Keep in mind, this Villain is a Fantasy World Villain, so there’s torture, killing, mayhem and chaos involved in Evie’s new work environment. But that’s okay. No job is perfect.

When Evie starts feeling attracted to the Villain though, she realizes she may really in trouble. It’s not just that he is her boss, there are other things to consider.

I mean, who finds sexy, darkly brooding, powerful, quietly sensual and possibly evil men attractive?

There is more to the story than that though. Someone seems to have it out for the Villain and the sabotage attempts seem to be coming from the inside.

Evie is determined to get to the bottom of it and save her crush before it’s too late.

As mentioned before, this is super cute. The pace is energetic and you want more. The synopsis comps this to Once Upon A Time meeting The Office and I think that is quite apt.

There was something so delightful about that mix. The fantastical office setting was completely unique and I can’t wait for more of it. Additionally, there was a great sense of humor to it and I enjoyed watching the chemistry build.

I also appreciated the romance that Maehrer created within this story. It was more about pining, getting to know one another and mutual respect, versus steam, steam, steam. I gotta say, compared to a lot of the things I’ve been picking up lately, it was a nice change of pace.

I think leaving the steam out allowed me to really focus on getting to know these characters. I feel attached to them after a very short time.

I was delighted that we ended up getting the perspective of the Villain, Tristan, as well. Oh my goodness, did I enjoy my time with him.

We definitely spend more time with Evie, but learning about the Villain through his own thoughts and feelings was really sweet. I liked reading what he was thinking about Evie’s presence in his world and watching that change over time.

I did enjoy the mystery, although admittedly, that did play second fiddle to the romance element, but I feel like Maehrer intended it to be that way.

Overall, I thought this was adorable. I’m definitely looking forward to getting my hands on the next book. I am wondering if it will go more in depth with some of the side characters, who I enjoyed, but I didn’t really feel like I got to know that well in this installment.

Counting down the days until Apprentice to the Villain!!!

View all my reviews

Review: No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall

~ megs14malloy

No One Can KnowNo One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars**

No One Can Know is the most recent Adult release from beloved author, Kate Alice Marshall, who made her Adult Debut last January with What Lies in the Woods. I enjoyed that quite a bit, so have been anxiously awaiting this release.

Happily, it didn’t disappoint for a moment. I listened to the audiobook and yet again, Karissa Vacker’s stellar narration knocked it out of the park.

In this story we meet Emma, who after her husband, Nathan, loses his job, and essentially their housing, has to come clean to him about that fact that she actually already owns a home. It has the potential to save them.

As you can imagine, he’s surprised, but the truth is, Emma hasn’t told him much about her past. He knows her parents are dead and that she’s estranged from her two sisters, other than that, he knows nothing of the bloody and tragic events that shaped Emma’s life.

The situation is that Emma owns her parent’s home jointly with her sisters. They can’t sell it, but they can live in it.

Without having much of a choice, and trust, Emma would do anything else if she could, they move in.

Unfortunately, moving back to her hometown and into her family home means that Emma’s going to have to come clean with Nathan about a few more things…

For example, like the fact that her parents were actually murdered in the home and many in the town believed that Emma was the one responsible.

Emma’s sudden presence comes as a shock to the town and yet again, rumors and speculations begin to swirl. She sort of figured that would happen though, that’s why she stayed away for so long.

Her being back has another, more unexpected consequence. It lures her sisters back too. The three have never actually talked about what happened. Each of them has their own thoughts and secrets regarding that fateful night.

But are their secrets continuing to put them in more danger? If Emma didn’t do it, then who did? And will they ever be able to rekindle their once loving relationships?

I found this set-up so interesting. I liked Emma as a character from the start, but I hated her husband.

Those feelings continued throughout and only helped to solidify my connection to the story. My ire towards Nathan alone, kept me glued to the pages.

I felt bad for Emma, having lost her parents and then her sisters. It seemed unfair to me, as she seemed genuinely distraught by the events that had led to the family demise.

We eventually get the perspectives of Emma’s sisters, Juliette, now going by J.J., and Daphne. While I didn’t have the same level of feelings for them that I felt for Emma, I did find them interesting; messy, but interesting.

I loved getting the back-and-forth between the past and present. I always enjoy that, as the puzzle pieces are set in place. I love just sitting back and enjoying the ride as everything becomes clear.

I will say, this one kept me guessing for way longer than I expected. I think Marshall did a great job of keeping enough possibilities in play to keep the Reader engaged and guessing. It wasn’t quite clear until almost the very end.

I suspected everyone at one time or another. I also enjoyed how the pace steadily increased the further you got along, until it was pedal to the floor, full throttle, full speed ahead!

I’m really enjoying KAM in this Adult space. I also love her YA work, so it’s clear to me, she’ll be successful with whatever she chooses to write. She’s just that good.

If you haven’t yet read Kate Alice Marshall, I feel like this could be a fun place to start. I definitely recommend this audiobook too, if that is an option for you. Karissa Vacker is one of my all-time favorite narrators and she definitely helped to bring this story to life.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review.

This was fantastic and certainly delivered on the tense family drama and deep dark secrets I was expecting. I can’t wait to see what Marshall gives us next!

View all my reviews

Review: Rolling in the Deep (Rolling in the Deep #0.5 by Mira Grant

~ megs14malloy

Rolling in the Deep (Rolling in the Deep, #0.5)Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rolling in the Deep is the prequel to Mira Grant’s sensational killer mermaid story, Into the Drowning Deep.

I read Into the Drowning Deep in February of 2020 and absolutely LOVED it. There’s something about Aquatic Horror that I find so disturbing. Maybe it’s the fact that I live on a island…

Regardless, in that book we follow a ship crew sent out on a mission to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the crew of the Atargatis. The events of the Atargatis had occurred 7-years prior and one of the main characters had a sister who was part of the Atargatis crew.

You hear a lot in that story about the Atargatis, of course, but this novella covers the full story of that crew, their goals, actions and interactions leading up to their disappearance.

I love Grant’s use of mixed media to tell both of these stories. It makes it feel surprisingly realistic. I also feel like Grant excels at including science-based content in her stories. Both of these books are so well written.

I wish this would have been a full length novel. I know that wasn’t the point, but I just love these stories so much, I wanted more!

I definitely recommend these books to any Horror fan who hasn’t had the chance to get to them yet. You’ll never think of mermaids the same way again.

View all my reviews

Review: The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

~ megs14malloy

The Tusks of ExtinctionThe Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

The Tusks of Extinction wasn’t what I expected at all and I don’t think I should give it a rating.

It’s an important work of Speculative Fiction, that really takes its time exploring a heartbreaking topic, and my enjoyment level is fairly irrelevant.

I was moved by it and it’s written well, but I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it in the way I expected or wanted.

I definitely respect the heck out of this author for tackling this subject though. It couldn’t have been easy to do the research necessary to write this story.

To bring you up to speed, this explores, and I will caution, in detail, the poaching of elephants and the decimation of species in general.

I would equate my experience of reading this to my experience with The Vanished Birds. Also a fantastic book, just not necessarily a book for me.

With this being said, I would strongly encourage anyone who thinks this sounds interesting to check it out. The synopsis however, IMO, is a little misleading, as calling this a tense eco-thriller is off the mark.

I would classify this more as a slow-moving Speculative Science Fiction, with a philosophical bent. I know a ton of Readers are going to really be wowed by this one, so please don’t let my ‘no rating’ sway you.

There’s a book for every Reader and a Reader for every book. This is an important story, just not necessarily one I care to explore in my free time when I am looking to relax.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Spotify Audiobooks, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I appreciate this author’s writing and the importance of the topic.

View all my reviews

Review: The Fury by Alex Michaelides

~ megs14malloy

The FuryThe Fury by Alex Michaelides
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars**

The Fury, the latest from Alex Michaelides, is a unique and unsettling Tragedy from which I couldn’t look away. This kept my head spinning all the way through. We love that!

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this author’s previous novels, so had been highly anticipating this. I started to see some early reviews though that made question if I would like it.

Luckily, I found this to be engaging and intriguing from the very start. Our narrator, Elliot, addresses the fact that he is our narrator. It’s like we are sitting with him, having some drinks, and he is telling us a story from his life.

I absolutely adore that kind of narrative. It always makes me feel like I am actually a part of the action, or more fittingly in this case, of the friend group.

Elliott relates to us the details of an ill-fated trip he took with his best friend, Lana, a retired movie star, her husband, Jason, their mutual friend, Kate, also an actress, Lana’s son Leo, an aspiring actor, and Lana’s assistant, to a remote Greek island for a weekend getaway.

We know what starts out as a beautiful holiday, ends up to be anything but. The group gets trapped on the island due to high winds. Emotions and tensions are running high. The claustrophobic nature of their excursion becomes palpable.

This strain could be blamed for the violence and death that ultimately occurs, couldn’t it? Or is something much deeper lurking under the surface that leads to the bloody and chaotic conclusion?

Y’all, I was absolutely swept up into this story. I know that some Reviewers have mentioned that it was slow for them, but I didn’t have the same experience with it. I had the audiobook and listened to the first 70% just while adulting, doing my cleaning and other errands, one Saturday.

I was obsessed with learning all I could about the characters and couldn’t help but continuing on. The narrative structure is out of the ordinary, but I loved how it was done.

Michaelides kept me guessing. It also should be noted that I am a huge fan of unreliable narrators and Elliott fits that moniker to a tee.

I wouldn’t say this is a simple story to read, and I can see how it wouldn’t be for everyone. I can also see how some may find it slow. There is quite a bit of develop in the beginning, building out our group and their relationships.

However, for those who enjoy some mental gymnastics, mixed with great character work, an unreliable narrator and tension so thick you could cut it with a knife, this is sure to be a success.

If any of these descriptors are buzzwords for you, give it a go. You may like it, you may not, but either way, it’s sure to be a memorable experience.

A few other aspects of this book that worked for my tastes were the remote location, particularly the fact that it is set on an island, I live on an island, so tend to love to see that, the cast of unlikable characters and the teeny bit of character crossover from The Maidens and The Silent Patient.

No, you don’t need to read either of those novels prior to reading this, but for those who have, those little name drops can be a lot of fun.

While this doesn’t have the same level of mystery as The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, it did sort of remind me of that in some ways. I think the vibe of mild confusion mixed with enjoyment is quite similar.

If you enjoyed that one, you may enjoy this as well. Overall, I think this is just so fun. It’s clever and engaging and yes, also a tad confusing at times.

I’d definitely read it again, maybe try and pick up some subtleties I might have missed this time around.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Macmillan Audio and Celadon Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This was a great reading experience for me and I’m happy to have a copy on my shelves.

I can’t wait to see what Michaelides comes up with next!!

View all my reviews

Review: Charlie & the Great Glass Elevator (Charlie Bucket #2) by Roald Dahl

~ megs14malloy

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Charlie Bucket, #2)Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars**

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator is cute and so silly. A great, fun, wacky, witty and energetic read for children.

While I don’t feel the same pull, love, or nostalgia to this as I do to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I can still appreciate Dahl’s imagination and ability to bring fiction to life.

I read this when I was a kid and I’m not sure I truly understood a lot of what was going on, as it does jump around quickly, and there’s a bit of a Cold War humor undertone to it that I’m sure escaped me.

However, I’m not sure I tracked much more this time around in my 40s, though not necessarily for the same reasons.

I did love the incorporation of Charlie’s family more, particularly when their ages were getting messed with towards the end by some of Wonka’s inventions.

I did definitely miss the magic and wonder of the Chocolate Factory. There’s something about the idea of those endless and impossible sweets that is sure to capture your heart. Also, I sort of missed the annoying other children.

Since Charlie is the best of the best though, it was nice to get to see him escape his previously tough life and go on a true adventure with his loved ones.

I love Charlie and Wonka. Classic characters for all time!

View all my reviews

Review: Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham

~ megs14malloy

Only If You're LuckyOnly If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Only If You’re Lucky is a slow burn and I know it won’t necessarily be for every Reader. For me, though, there is no denying the rich-quality of Willingham’s writing.

She pulled this one off in the end, big time. It took me a minute to settle into the story, not gonna lie, but once I did I was swept up into the drama like a nosy neighbor.

In this story we follow Margot, who is a Freshman at a small Liberal Arts college in South Carolina.

It was Margot’s dream to attend this particular college with her childhood best friend, Eliza. Unfortunately, Eliza’s life was taken in a tragic accident just prior to that dream becoming a reality.

Freshman year, Margot is obviously still coming to grips with the loss of her best friend. She feels like a ship without a port and therefore, plays it very safe. She befriends her new roommate and they barely ever leave the dorm.

At the end of the year though, she gets approached by a girl she’s been watching from afar all year, Lucy Sharpe. Lucy is magnetic, bold and popular and for some reason, she wants Margot as a friend.

Lucy offers Margot the chance to move in with her and two other girls in an off-campus house. Unable to refuse a golden opportunity, the chance for a new life, a fresh start and a position amongst the it-girls, Margot accepts, thus changing her fate forever.

As Margot is folded into this new group of girls, she begins to think that perhaps Lucy isn’t quite who she thinks she is.

The other two girls, Nicole and Sloane, seem a bit hesitant to discuss Lucy behind her back. Are they just loyal friends, or is there more to it than that?

By the end of Sophomore year, these girls are completely embedded in one another’s lives, rarely apart. Then a boy from the fraternity house next door ends up dead and Lucy goes missing without a trace. Circumstances have shifted.

As the police dig into an investigation, it’s clear Margot, Nicole and Sloane know more than they’re letting on. Are they helping Lucy, or do they really not know where she is? You’ll have to hang in until the very end to find out.

As mentioned before, this is a slow burn. You have to be patient as Willingham sets the stage, introduces our characters and fills in some of Margot’s backstory.

As the relationship with Margot and her new friends begins, that’s when things start to pick up. It’s hard to get a read initially on the other girls and you wonder just what exactly Margot is getting herself into.

I did really grow to care for Margot and the other girls over the course of the story. A lot of the things they were doing and going through, I could relate to and through Willingham’s writing, it really took me back to that time in my own life, when I met my best friend, Nichole.

Once I was hooked into the characters, I started to fly through this and I loved how the different aspects of the narrative tied together in the second half.

I think some may be disappointed by this because while it’s pitched as Adult, I would actually classify it as New Adult. Some Readers are going to pick this up and find that the storyline reads a little young for them, and I get that.

I read a ton of YA stories, personally, and love them; particularly YA Mystery/Thrillers. While I was a little surprised initially, I still feel like this is a strong story. In fact, I think this would be a great transitional book for Readers moving from the YA to Adult category.

Also, I know the synopsis states they’re in college, but I rarely read the full synopsis for a Mystery/Thriller, and I think the same can be said for a lot of Readers.

You don’t want to spoil yourself, so if you see a favorite authors’ name on the cover, you just give it a go. These are the people I think are going to be the most surprised.

If you go into this with the right mindset though, knowing this is a story involving young women in the early stages of college, going through all the things young women in college go through, you could really enjoy it.

I did have the pleasure of listening to the audiobook and absolutely recommend that format. It’s narrated by one of the best narrators of all time, Karissa Vacker, and per usual, she brought life to this story.

Overall, I think this was a bit of a change for Stacy Willingham. Her earlier stories have been well and proper in the Adult category. It’s nice to see her stretch her legs a bit and I feel she was successful in this story.

It’s well-constructed and contains a full cast of nicely-fleshed out characters.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me a copy to read and review. Willingham is a must read for me. I will continue to pick up all her work!

Only If You’re Lucky is available now!!!

View all my reviews

Review: The Expectant Detectives (The Expectant Detectives #1) by Kat Ailes

~ megs14malloy

The Expectant Detectives (Expectant Detectives, #1)The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

The Expectant Detectives is a new style of Cozy Mystery that I have certainly never read before. I found it to be charming and a heck of a lot of fun; pure enjoyment.

I love Cozy Mysteries that feature an MC and their friend group trying to solve a local mystery. A few favorites, to be noted for example, from recent years would be The Thursday Murder Club, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers and The Marlow Murder Club.

All three of these books have one important thing in common, the MCs are older than we would typically find in the Mystery genre. These older, dare we call them elderly, characters are quirky, fun and provide a bit of a different perspective than the norm.

In The Expectant Detectives, Kat Ailes uses a very similar set-up to other Cozies, but her intrepid group of amateur sleuths are pregnant women, not elderly individuals.

In this story, we meet and follow, Alice. She and her boyfriend, Joe, are expecting their first child. Although not planned, they’re both excited about the pregnancy and looking forward to the next steps in their relationship.

Thinking their city-located flat will be too small for their growing family, they decide to move to the sleepy village of Penton. They just feel like it would be a more desirable place to raise a child. Safer and all that…

That is until a dead body is discovered at a prenatal class they have joined. They can’t believe it. This is not what they thought village life would be like.

Now everyone in attendance at the class is a suspect, including Alice and Joe.

Together with a few of the other pregnant women, Alice begins looking into the murder herself. She needs to clear their names before this baby arrives.

Side note, Alice has a glorious dog, Helen, who could easily turn out to be my favorite character of the year. I just adored her and the joy she brought to the narrative.

I was really entertained by this story. The audiobook was well done, the narration so on-point with the humor that it had me laughing out loud numerous times.

I thought Ailes set-up for this story was creative and truly unlike anything I’ve read before. Alice has a dry, witty sense of humor that worked well for me. She tells it like it is. She’s pretty blunt about her pregnancy and the way it is changing/affecting her body.

I also liked that it wasn’t just Alice that was pregnant, she had her new friends to share the experience with, as well as to help her do some first-rate investigating.

For me, I wouldn’t say the initial murder was totally compelling. It didn’t even make sense to me at first how they were so confident it was a murder, like it almost felt like it could have been an accident or something.

Nevertheless, I was willing to go on that journey with the characters because I was enjoying them so much. After a while, the more the ladies dug in, the more secrets and intrigue they revealed, then I was hooked.

Overall, this is a fantastic debut Mystery. It had just the right amount of humor and fun, mixed in with the actual mystery. I think the longer this series goes on, the more attached that I’m going to get to these characters and this village as well.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m definitely looking forward to more from Kat Ailes!

View all my reviews

Review: Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, Edited & Intro by Jordan Peele

~ megs14malloy

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black HorrorOut There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror by Jordan Peele
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror is a project brought to us by writer and director, Jordan Peele.

I’m sure you’re aware of Peele’s work. He has left quite the stamp on pop culture with his brilliant movies and television work. His popularity catapulted this collection onto many TBRs before it released this past October.

I was highly-anticipating this Anthology and am so happy to report, it’s great! Peele was able to bring together an impressive list of authors to contribute to this collection.

I loved how unique each story felt. Within the Horror genre, you really have almost every subgenre represented here. There’s something for everybody.

I’ve written before on the difficulty of rating Anthologies super highly. You’ll always have some stories you connect with more than others. I try to base my rating on the reading experience as a whole.

It’s clear, every contributor here is a gifted storyteller, and whether or not you vibe with the exact content of each story, you’ve got to appreciate the level of skill and heart that each author brought.

Whether you are a fan of SF-Horror with futuristic concepts, Speculative Horror with supernatural elements sprinkled throughout regular life, Mermaids, Historic Horror, or Social Horror; you will absolutely be able to find a story within this collection to sink your teeth into!

If you are interested, some stand-outs for me were: Eye and Tooth by Rebecca Roanhorse, The Other One by Violet Allen, Lasiren by Erin E. Adams, Dark Home by Nnedi Okorafor, Flicker by L.D. Lewis, The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World by Nalo Hopkinson, A Bird Sings by the Etching Tree by Nicole D. Sconiers and Hide and Seek by P. Djèlí Clark.

While these are the stories that resonated the most with me, as I mentioned before, this collection truly has stories for every type of Horror Reader.

It’s super diverse, extremely fast-paced, well-arranged and will keep you on your toes throughout.

Overall, this is a well-rounded collection. Every person who reads this is going to have a different experience. I think it would be really fun to read this with friends, or a book club. There would be so much to discuss!

That’s what it’s all about; making your own connections and interpretations, having fun and learning from others perspectives, cultures, traditions, folklore and experiences.

I think all of the contributors to this Anthology should be proud of the work they put forth here. Everyone was bringing their A-game.

I’m happy to have been introduced to a some new authors that I can follow, as well as getting to read more from some of my tried and true favorites like P. Djèlí Clark, Nnedi Okorafor and Rebecca Roanhorse.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys Anthologies, Horror stories, or Speculative Fiction in general. I’ll remember this collection for a long time!

View all my reviews