SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS
Kailee Pedersen
AITA or is it hard to find good horror books to read? It took me all year to find only a handful of reasonable contenders, and this was one of the top ones I read this year.
In SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS we are following Nick. Nick was living his life, that what it was, minding his own business when he receives a letter from his estranged abusive father. He must return home as he has responsibilities and things to do and take care of. It is the last thing he wants to do right now, but it is the only thing that seems like the right thing to do.
The only relationship more complicated than the one between Nick and his father is the one between Nick and his brother Joshua. They lived a long and hard childhood together. They might be the only ones who know the bounds of their father’s abusiveness, If not for Emilia, who knows it the most.
What will happen when all three of them return home and are made to live again in the confines of the only hell they have ever known? Only time and SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS will tell. And you’ll have to read it to hear the story yourself.
This was great. I had a good time reading and I did not guess the twist. I love when that happens. This is my first Pedersen, and I hope it won’t be my last.
The writing is fierce and quick, and the character development is strong. The writing and the characters are not my only favorite things about SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS. The storyline, which I’m sure sounds familiar to you is like revisiting an old friend. Except the friend has changed and morphed into something unrecognizable. Something wicked and terrible.
If you’ve been waiting for something to impress you and haunt you, look no further. SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS is it.
Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copies! I loved this on audiobook.
SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
THE BLUE HOUR
Paula Hawkins
I want to like her books, more than I do. I want my reading experiences to feel like I’m drinking to the point of drowning, all I am is thirsty.
“There’s nothing left here to decode.”
Sabrina Carpenter
THE BLUE HOUR stars Vanessa and Grace. There are other characters but these two are the only ones you need to remember. All that’s left of Vanessa are her journals, her art, and a knot of unresolved yearning in Grace’s stomach. And now a mystery surrounding her life’s work. All of it feels like an exercise in grief, none of it will feel like a resolution.
The questions raised feel like tilling a grave, and Grace dies a little every time. Will the truth ever be uncovered, or will it continue to be cast afloat, forever unmoored?
I keep going back to her although nothing has worked for me like THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN did. My reading experiences between now and then have been cold (INTO THE WATER), and hot (A SLOW FIRE BURNING), this one is right in the middle.
The material is not that interesting to me. It felt tepid and uninspiring. The characters feel inauthentic, doing and saying things that don’t reconcile. The thriller, not thrilling, the mystery, not mysterious, the writing has nothing to notate, not much to read.
Thanks to Netgalley and Mariner Books for the advanced copy!
THE BLUE HOUR…⭐️⭐️⭐️
CROSS MY HEART
Megan Collins
I was staying in Morro Bay when I read this book, in the midst of summer, in the middle of a heat wave. I received three books in the span of ten seconds. All from Atria with the subject line “ Your weekend is booked.”
This was the one I was the most excited about. The one I couldn’t wait to read. I picked it up and finished it that afternoon. I loved it and I think you will too. It comes out in the middle of January, and you should add it to your Goodreads WANT TO READ shelf, because you don’t want to be late on this one. Someone will assuredly spoil it for you.
Her parents have been married for a lifetime. Love and fidelity is all she knows. She spends her days selling wedding gowns and half-baked dreams to young soon-to-be brides. And spends her nights pondering her future.
She was engaged at one point. In a life that feels like it was lived by someone else. He left her at the altar and literally broke her heart. Days after the break-up she would find her heart did not work the same way. the way it should. To heal she would need a new heart. She would need someone to die.
The man she messages at night is a writer. His emails are golden. With her new heart, she falls in love. What she doesn’t know is what parts of her have fallen, and what he doesn’t know is her little secret, for now.
This was good—really good. The concept is a winner and is successfully brought to fruition. The twists had me at every turn. I enjoyed Collin’s prior thriller, THE FAMILY PLOT, but I liked this one more.
Desperation was a running theme that propelled every character and informed their choices. It was palpable and you could feel it in every move they made. Each character introduced was more desperate than the last. And you really couldn’t tell how far they would go to get what they wanted. And I did no know how it would end until the final pages.
So good, so fun. One of best coming next year and there are a lot of contenders.
Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for the advanced copy and booking my weekend!
CROSS MY HEART…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
