Books read in 2025

 Books that I read over the last year...As always, title & author, followed by a few of my thoughts (I'll try to keep things spoiler-light, but make no concrete promises) and the final sentence of the book is in parenthesis, spoiler-tagged except for the final word.)

1. My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson - Trey Singleton III, a gay Black man born into a wealthy family, who, upon his 18th birthday, decides he wants to prove to himself (and his family) that he can make it on his own. He heads to New York City with nothing but his wits and a few dollars. This was a fictionalized telling of the actual events in New York City in the 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic was truly ravaging the gay community. Seeing Trey both come of age, and also realize his political awakening was amazingly powerful. The author is an excellent wordsmith, too. It was also interesting to see just how awful the LGBTQ community has been treated in years that really weren't that long ago. I did feel that the book simply sort of ended, with not a lot of resolution, but otherwise, this was a peek into a world that I didn't really know much about. (Yet here I was, and in the morning, I would open my eyes and go on with my life.)

2. The Men by Sandra Newman - The first 3/4ths of this were pretty great. One day in late August, all the men in the world mysteriously vanish. Like the Rapture happened, but, just for men. Jane Pearson loses her husband and son, and we eventually find out her extremely tragic backstory, and she eventually reconnects with her girlfriend, Evangelyne, who ALSO has an amazing backstory, and honestly, both of these characters were enthralling and unique women who I'd love to just hang out with.  After all the men vanish, the women of the world go about life, as you'd expect. A website begins showing odd videos of large groups of men walking thru weird settings with bizarre looking animals sometimes around them. Is The Men (the name of the site with the videos) a ruse, or is it truly a glimpse into where the men actually are? As I said, the first chunk of this was enthralling. The ending..not so much? But, whatever. I would totally watch a series based on this concept. Especially if they managed to stick the landing. (I watched the stars fade into dawn.)

3. The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness - ehh. This was fine, I guess, just ...felt a bit like ...filler? Like, the idea that everyone is going through their own things, and that there are other stories and adventures happening outside of the Big Grand Ones is fine, and true, and whatever. But it just ...fell a bit flat for me, is all. I doubt I'll remember much of this a month or two from now. But, just so I can sorta recall when I come back and read this years from now: The novel focused on Mike and his group of friends and family during his senior year of high school. Mike lives in a world in which there are vampires and ghosts and zombie invasions every few years, and everyone generally suppresses their memories of such events as they get older, so it's up to the "indie kids" to be the ones who save the day. Mike and his gang are NOT indie kids, so while there's an apocalypse brewing in the background, the book itself is more interested in Mike's drama (his OCD, and his teen angst about losing his group of friends when everyone goes to college next year, and his unrequited love for Henna). Neat enough idea, but like I said, just didn't quite work for me. Oh well. (And still we watch.)

4. Crowded vol. 1: Soft Apocalypse by Christopher Sebela - graphic novel that is set in a near future where there's an app called Reapr that allows people to essentially gofundme murders legally. So, you know how in the John Wick movies there are bounties put out on John (and other assassins)? Imagine if that were EVERYWHERE.  Charlie is a self-absorbed young woman who finds herself Reapd with a rather large bounty - that continues to grow larger because the people adding to the jackpot REALLY want her dead. To protect herself, she hires a bodyguard (off another app). Vita is her reluctant guardian throughout this adventure, and the ONLY reason she sticks around through Charlie's annoyance and ignorance and continual fuckups is because she's a professional. Well. At first, at least. Eventually she starts to warm up to Charlie, and become somewhat friends with her. This might be a fun movie, if it ever gets turned into one. I don't know if I'm invested enough to keep reading the graphic novels, though. I saw that there are already two other volumes out there... and I think I've pretty much gotten the gist of the story from the one volume I read. It's cute, but it's not endearing enough to keep up with. (But I don't fucking trust her.)

5. Satan's Swarm  by Steve Niles - graphic novel that was written by the same person who wrote 30 Days of Night (which I've not read, but I liked the movie!) about a group of strangers brought to an island by a guy who plans on killing them all with his swarm of killer insects. Sadly, since this is just an IDEA, not an actual STORY, this was boring as hell. None of the "characters" are developed enough to care about any of them, and the villain's reveal was just a half-page info dump. This was like the very equivalent of a rough draft with NO polishing whatsoever. The art work wasn't bad, but, yeesh. Everything else pretty much sucked. At least this was 'self contained', so it isn't a continuing series (although it did end with sequel bait) but I wouldn't be following up with any other books that were in this even if it DID have more to come. (I just want to get as far from here as possible.)

6. The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler - Set in a nearish future. This sci-fi thriller was about some scientists discovering a species of ultra intelligent octopuses, and trying to a) figure out how to communicate with them, b) keep them safe from fishing boats and also keep them safe from corporations and scientists trying to exploit/dissect them. Pretty compelling for a large portion of it, but there were some side-plots involving a fishing boat crew that mutinied against the humans holding them captive (and then against the AI boat) and a hacker trying to locate and hack into the first (and only) truly AI android on the planet that ...did tie in to the main plot, but also, probably could have been cut and not been any major loss. I suspect that this could be the beginning of a series, as while it was a cool story, it "wrapped up" in a way that largely felt like it was simply setting up for the REAL action/story to begin. If that is the case, and Evrim (the android) was involved, I might follow up. (Eiko followed.)

7. Sundial by Catriona Ward - quite good. Creepy, well plotted and well written. Rob is a mother of two little girls (Callie, 12 and Annie, who is either 8 or 9) who is married to Irving. Irving is a serial cheater and has a history of threatening physical violence toward Rob. When Callie begins to display some disturbing signs (she has animal bones in her room, is constantly talking to imaginary friends, and possibly poisoned Annie), Rob takes her on a getaway to her childhood home of Sundial. But, it turns out that Rob has a dark past...well, calling it "dark" is probably not even sufficient. Because, holy shit. Rob and her twin sister Jack grew up at Sundial, raised by their hippie/scientist parents, who experimented on wild dogs back in the day. The twists and darkness of this novel just KEPT COMING. And while it did get to be a bit relentless near the end, it managed to be JUST the right length to where I didn't get completely exhausted by it.  (In an upstairs bedroom of Hannah's house, the little pink lamp shines out just like a real star, set to guide us home.)

8. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu - This was essentially a collection of connected short stories, set in a world where a mysterious 30,000 year old virus gets unleashed on the world, and it begins affecting people - mostly children at first, then others. It begins by killing people, but later has other side effects such as transforming people's organs into those of starfish. This started off really strongly  - the story about the theme park where children are euthanized on a roller coaster, giving them one last day of happiness was truly brutal - but somewhere along the way - maybe around the halfway point? - it just got to be too much of the same emotional drumbeats: loss, grief, isolation, regret. I still finished it, and felt the ending was good (although somewhat ...out there, lol) it's just that maybe - for me, at least - it should have been just a wee bit shorter.  (I might wake up early to watch the sun rise. - Colonel Franklin Barret, USAF Retired)

9. Killing and Dying by  Adrian Tomine - Graphic novel that had several short unrelated stories in in that were all slice of life types and all quite good at capturing ...just ordinary life.  Since these were basically short stories, I'll treat them as such, and give the final sentences from each one.

A Brief History of the Art Form Known as "Hortisculpture" was about a middle aged gardener who comes up with the idea of combining sculptures with plants, but nobody else seems to like the idea.  It had a couple smile-worthy moments, but overall, really, was just a glimpse into this guy's life with his family. (Wanna help?)

Amber Sweet was about a young woman who bears an incredible resemblance to a famous porn star, and the difficulties she faces as a result. This had a very melancholy feel to it. (Okay.)

Go Owls tells the story of an unnamed woman who meets and has a relationship with a guy named Barry. Barry is a loser dickhead, and the warning signs are there from the start, but unfortunately, he's also (mildly?) charming, and "Babe" (as Barry constantly refers to her) doesn't see them before she's pretty deep into her relationship with this guy. This was powerful, and easily the second best of the bunch.(Don't leave me locked up with these --)

Translated, from the Japanese, was told as a letter that an unseen protagonist is reading that was written by their mother years ago. Visually this was fantastic (all the artwork in all the stories was good, and also unique, which is pretty incredible in its own right) but story-wise I felt this one was the least compelling to me. (Can you believe your parents once came so close to breaking?)

Killing and Dying is absolutely amazing. It focuses on a family - father, mother, and teenage daughter - just living their lives. The daughter has a stutter, and also her relationship with her dad is strained as they butt heads a lot. She ends up wanting to take a class for standup comedy. Her mom supports her, her dad is reluctant at first. There's a twist that I did NOT see coming at first, and thought I'd missed something upon first reading, but reading between the lines and seeing what I missed made me appreciate this all the more. I don't want to spoil it, but, man. This was just a really great short story/comic. (Heh heh.)

Finally was Intruders which felt like it could have been turned into a longer piece, but was fine as it was. About a guy who realizes his keys still work on his old apartment, and when the new tenants are out during the day, working, he begins entering their home. Kinda creepy. Anyway, all in all, this whole book was a really quick read, but I liked it. (And starting right there, I tried my best to become one of them.)

10. Duck and Cover by Scott Snyder - graphic novel. Del Reeves and his friends growing up in 1950s America have their city of Schellville nuked. They survived only because they actually did the "duck and cover" routine of getting under their desks when the bombs fell. If surviving a nuclear blast by being underneath a school desk seems ridiculous, it's because it is. And also, because, what fell were not ordinary nuclear weapons, but something much much stranger. (Hint: Aliens). This was a quick read that didn't wow me, but, was fine as a distraction for an hour or so, mostly due to the artwork, because the characters and plot were largely just......there. I didn't really CARE about anyone, or what weirdness they were going to encounter next, but I also couldn't stop going. So, this was sort of the equivalent of potato chips in graphic novel form. Heh. Anyway, probably won't keep going if this series continues. It left it very wide open, but I'm just not engrossed enough to care how it all ends up. (Don't touch that dial, we'll be back with you REAL soon...)

11. Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh - Collection of short stories that were well written, but... you'll want to take a shower after them. These were, for the most part, slice-of-life stories about people who are just ...well. Range from the normal, but kinda icky, to the just plain yech. And, yeah, like I said, well written, but, that drum of "people are disgusting animals" is just beat repeatedly. I don't know. It was a fine collection, but it certainly wasn't life-affirming or FUN.

The stories:
Bettering Myself  - An alcoholic schoolteacher hates her life. (The sun shone on.)

Mr. Wu - An elderly incel lusts after a middle-aged woman, and wants to make a move on her, but is too cowardly, and instead visits prostitutes. (He walked home under the burning banner and down the dark and quiet road, pausing now and then to raise his arms in victory.)

Malibu - A jobless loser hooks up with a desperate Native American woman after a wrong number phone call. It was around this story when I was seeing that NONE of these characters are people you'd want to really hang out with. Or, at least, the author isn't shy about showing you their uglier sides. (I mowed the lawn again.)

The Weirdos - A woman thinks about leaving her crappy ass boyfriend... but doesn't. (Maybe he was the man of my dreams.)

A Dark and Winding Road - A successful yuppie type with a drug addicted loser brother goes to a remote cabin owned by their parents - despite the fact that his pregnant wife is at home due to have their baby any moment. While there, a woman arrives at the cabin that is wanting to get high with his brother. (It wasn't painful, nor was it terrifying, but it was disgusting - just as I'd always hoped it to be.)

No Place for Good People - An older guy gets a job as a caretaker of adults with mental retardation. He takes three of them out for a dinner at a restaurant. (I slept on the couch that night, the TV flickering like a flame over my shoulder, the succulents creeping in cups and saucers across the mantle, the coffee table, all the window sills, the whole house full of them, my perfect little children.)

Slumming - Middle aged woman spends her summers in a rundown section of the city and slowly gets addicted to meth. (I walked back home.)

An Honest Woman - A skeevy old man attempts to seduce his younger neighbor. (Jeb whistled through the warm evening streets, imagining this wonderful new place all the stupid people who would gasp and fall to their knees in ecstasy every time he shuffled past.)

The Beach Boy - A middle aged couple go on a vacation to an undisclosed island location - Jamaica? The Philippines? Thailand? - after returning home, the wife dies, and the husband discovers (flimsy) evidence that she had slept with a prostitute while there. He decides he wants to as well. (It was clear to him and to the other beach boys watching from their perch in the dunes that the old man wasn't carrying any money.)

Nothing Ever Happens Here - A naive, yet narcissistic young man moves from Utah out to LA in hopes of becoming an actor in the 80s. (Neither of us was very surprised.)

Dancing in the Moonlight - Creepy loser guy becomes obsessed with a woman he met at a furniture store. ("This is an act of God.")

The Surrogate - A woman with oversized labia gets hired as a 'surrogate vice president' of a Chinese business. (It makes me feel good to see him thrive.)

The Locked Room - A man and a woman end up locked inside a room together. ...These last two stories REALLY didn't hold my interest, and were, I felt, the weakest. Actually, the last three. Anyway. Yeah, that was the whole plot of this one - guy and a girl get locked into a room with a bunch of clothes in it. Meh. (That is the secret thing I found.)

A Better Place - A young girl and her twin brother often talk about how they feel like they are aliens and don't belong her on earth. They believe (?) that if they murder the 'right person' that a portal will open up allowing them to return to their home planet. The girl plans on poisoning an old man in the neighborhood who, it is heavily implied, raped their mom years ago. (I wait for the bad man to let me in.)

12. Tinfoil Butterfly by Rachel Eve Moulton -  After her stepbrother, Ray, dies, Emma goes on a suicide mission to kill herself at the Black Hills. She gets picked up by someone who turns out to not be such a great guy, and while trying to escape him (because her desire to live is actually stronger than she thinks), she ends up in a (mostly) deserted gas station. This started off strong and intriguing, but very quickly just became an absolute chore to get thru. I don't know why, but about 60 pages in or so, I simply got bored with Emma's past with her stepbrother (salacious as it was) and also with her present (dealing with Earl, George and Lowell just became tiresome).I just didn't click with the story past a certain point. Shrug. It happens sometimes. ("I'll be there soon," I whisper to Earl, and the liquid begins to move, glide quicksilver to my wrist along the inside of my arm up the curve of my armpit, around and under my breasts, cold down my torso to my belly button where it pools thick, turning to a charcoal ash, warming me straight through.)

13. The Nice House on the Lake, Vol. 1 by James Tynion IV - Walter invites a group of 10 friends up to his house on the lake for a weekend. Some of his friends have known him for nearly twenty years, and he's always been a little odd, and always had an obsession with the end of the world, but he's been cool. So, they all agree to go on this mysterious getaway that Walter sets up. The house is SUPREMELY nice. While there... the apocalypse happens - people in the rest of the world begin burning and/or melting and/or exploding violently. The 10 try to leave and discover an invisible force field blocking their exit. And they discover that their friend Walter is ...not human. He's probably an alien, but it isn't concretely determined WHAT he is. Some of the pacing was ...weird with this, and I still don't really have a sense of WHO each person is. But, the main draw for this story is the mystery and the how it's going to come together. And in that regard the story does well enough to keep me intrigued, and I'll probably pick up the next volume to see how it shapes up. (Yeah, it does.)

14. Something Is Killing the Children vol 1 by James Tynion IV - Graphic novel about a town that is infected with some sort of weird ass monster(s) that have murdered a bunch of children. This attracts the attention of a woman who is a self-described monster hunter. A survivor of a monster attack befriends her and decides to become her apprentice. This was ok, but felt a lot like just initial world building. There are like 8 other volumes apparently, and while there were hints that there is a lot of lore to this universe... I'm not really feeling like I NEED to find out how it's all gonna play out. I just ...didn't really care enough. (If this town is going to survive, we're going to have to kill them, and fast.)

15. Wrath by Sharon Moalem and Daniel Kraus - EditedPets is a company that genetically modifies animals to make them even BETTER. Imagine goldfish that could GLOW. Or parakeets that can ACTUALLY have conversations with you. Or ponies that are the size of golden retrievers, and just as playful. Their next product is Sammy, genetically modified rats, who are going to be smart enough to communicate through Speak & Spell apps and are also changed enough to give off calming pheromones, and changed to be absolutely ADORABLE. At least, that's the plan. Unfortunately, tinkering with genetics is a bit like playing god, and there are sometimes ...unforeseen consequences. Like seizures that cause the rats to get violently aggressive and start attacking people, or anything nearby. This was a LOT of fun. (Although, man. Some of the coincidences between this and my story from 20-however-many years ago, with Phoenix and Jen had me wondering if my blog had been looked at. LOL.) But, yeah. Ignoring those coincidences (because that's all they were), this was absolutely a great page-turner. SOME of the pacing was a little weird - when we get introduced to Dallas, and the way he and Sammy "meet" is ...well. Strains credibility a bit. And I KINDA wish the denouement was expanded a bit more. But those are minor complaints. I had a good time with this - the action (and gore) was wonderful, and, the monologue Colonel Monroe gives at around the 2/3rd mark was legit terrifying. (Hwee-oop--hwee-oop--hwee-oop.)

16. Never Flinch by Stephen King - I am a fan of Stephen King, of course, and even like most of the Holly stuff, but this outing... just didn't work for me, as a whole. The pacing near the beginning felt ...off, like it was just hard to focus on and get INTO. Around the 30-50 page mark, things started to pick up, and when it was good, it was good. But, too often, the momentum would be broken and it felt like an engine that was stuttering and about to die. Which is unfortunate. The climax  - finally getting the two plotlines to coincide - felt FAR too rushed, but, also, by that time, we were pretty much 350 pages in, and I was like, "ok, Steve's just bored with this and wants to wrap it up too".  Oh!! Right!! I almost forgot one of the things that bugged me BIG time with this. Spoilers for Never Flinch coming up... 

Okay, so our killer is picking random people to kill, and when he does, he places the name of one of the jurors from a trial where an innocent man was sentenced to jail. WHY DOES NOBODY ASK HOW HE GOT THE NAMES? It's never stated that the juror's names were made public, so it would stand to reason that if someone had that list, that they obtained it from the courts somehow. Or were maybe, INVOLVED in the trial somehow. Yes, I know the police interrogated the lawyers, and some of the jurors themselves, but the fact that nobody came out and directly asked HOW "Bill Wilson" obtained that list drove me bonkers. I mean, I get it, if they had, that would have ruined the twist of who he was, but still. At the very least have somebody ponder it.  

Anyway. I like Holly and the whole Hollyverse fine enough, but this just felt...like he wasn't totally gelling during a lot of it. In the afterword, he mentions that this was difficult for him to write (surgeries, his getting older) but that he powered thru, changing things up and reworking things until he was "happy enough" with it. - He said that Tabitha even read the original draft and gave it back to him saying 'you can do better'. I feel like...maybe he should have tried a little bit harder.  (Staring at him.)

17. The Listener by Robert McCammon - Ehhh. Set in 1934, during the Depression, this was about a couple of grifters, Pearly and Ginger, who decide to kidnap the young children of a business man who has tons of cash. Their plot runs into a snag when it turns out that the daughter has telepathic abilities and can communicate with other folks with the Shining (er...I mean the Shinning) like the young Negro, Curtis, who works at the railway.  And, truth be told, that synopsis sounds pretty cool and like it might be a good story. And ...parts of this were. But. There were so many issues.  For instance the opening chapter, where we meet Pearly pulling a scam on a family that felt researched well, and was intriguing, and got me hooked. Pearly - going by Parson at the time - interacts with this family, trying to scam them into buying some Bibles from their recently deceased patriarch. It goes south due to a misspelling of the child's name in the book, and he later comes back for revenge by beating the family dog with a baseball bat. So, instantly, we've got this guy who is creepy, scary, and someone to be wary of. Only, two chapters later, for him to be fearful of Ginger, and completely submissive to her? Like... what? What happened to the characterization we'd been building of this guy being a psychopath who took no shit from anyone?  

And, it never really FELT like the 1930s. Far too many people had cars and spent money like it was nothing. Like, I'm no currency expert, but would African-American workers for a railway really be betting 5 dollars in poker games?? Wasn't that a TON of money back then? 

There were a lot of things that felt like anachronisms as well. Like people mentioning "emergency rooms", and... I don't know. A lot of other things that just didn't FEEL like it was set in the 30s.  Didn't help that none of the characters were exactly ones I cared about - the kids felt cardboardy (and annoying), and Curtis was, well, I think there's a fine line when writing Black people, and I'm not sure that it wasn't crossed into caricature a few times. 

Overall, this was just not that fantastic. I forced myself through it, mostly because I wanted to know how it was going to end. The ending was also not satisfying. Supposedly McCammon is a well known and well respected author, but, I know that not everything can be a gem, so, I'm willing to give him another shot and just hope this one was a misfire. (And Nilla had to always add, in speaking of her friend, that he had been a very, very good listener.)

18. Stillwater vol. 1: Rage, Rage by Chip Zdarsky - Graphic novel about a town that, since the mid80s, has had the people within it have immortality and lack of aging. Stephen was a baby in the town in the 80s, but his mother, Laura, sent him out to live a normal life. 30 years later, Stephen is a graphic designer who lost his job, and receives a letter from a "great aunt" who has left him property there. This was intriguing enough that I'm definitely going to keep reading the series. I like the conflicts that have been set up between the authority figures of the town  who want to keep control (the mayor, the judge, the old woman who keeps all the paperwork up to date) and those who want to reveal the secret of the city to the outside world (the doctor, Laura, a large percentage of the citizens). The fact that nobody can die within city limits somehow makes things less intense AND more intense at the same time. As usual, with first volumes a lot of this was expository and getting things set up for later storylines, but I'm on board so far. (I have some people I'd like you to meet.)

19. Stillwater vol. 2: Always Local by Chip Zdarsky - The town trades being ruled by the judge for being ruled by the children, who feel like being immortal and stuck in children's bodies is unfair (they have a point). However, power corrupts, yada yada. The 3rd volume is supposed to wrap this up, which is good, because while I'm still enjoying it a fair amount, I'm not sure how much more this could be stretched out. (We changed the curse.)

20. Election by Tom Perrorta - Read this because I watched the film earlier, learned it was based on a novel, and wanted to see how it was. Enjoyable! I think I liked the ending of this better than the film's. Although, yeesh, Mr. M is WAY more of a scumbag in this. (Then I uncapped the pen, took a deep breath to clear my head, and started writing.)

21. Stillwater vol. 3: Border Crossing by Chip Zdarsky - Glad that this got wrapped up when it did. I think it would make a pretty great movie (or maybe a limited series on TV) but even with it just being three volumes, it felt ...somewhat disjointed this time around. Once the secret of the map got put into the world, it all just became about that, and everything was all just ...the same stuff over and over (to be fair, the characters realize this and deal with it in various ways.) It had some pretty cool twists, and I like the concept of an entire town having to deal with immortality. I'm not sure that I liked the ending, but I also don't know that there was a BETTER way to end it. (It's a still world.)

22. Neptune by Michael W. Conrad - graphic novel about a group of teens who commit a robbery that goes sideways. One of the teens, Shaw, dies. Corey goes to prison, and his brother, James commits suicide (although Corey suspects foul play as the suicide was suspicious). Years later, Corey gets out of prison, but he still sees (and speaks to) Shaw's ghost. Corey ends up getting a job at Neptune - a factory farm that his brother worked at before he died, only to uncover a bunch of shady shit that the company is doing. I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. It started off ok, but devolved into a mess where I really couldn't tell what was going on - the artwork, the characters, and the flashbacks all got too much to keep track of, and I'm sure if I were more invested, I could have sussed it all out, but, frankly, I didn't, so just sorta finished it with a feeling of meh. (You're safe now.)

23. Tantrum by Rachel Eve Moulton - Thea is a mother of three young children. She loves and adores her sons, but her daughter, Lucia, is different. Even though Lucia is only a few months old, she already has teeth. And she is growing fast. And almost walking. And her first words were "Me. Eat." So, yeah, Thea suspects that her daughter might be some sort of supernatural monster. This started off strong - but around page 130 (and there's only 176 - it's a short novel) it just....went off the rails for me, and became an absolute struggle to finish. Sigh. Had a similar situation with the other book of hers I read earlier this year - Tinfoil Butterfly - so...I guess this author just isn't a good mix for me. Either that, or I need to only read the first two/thirds of any books of hers I read in the future. (Their small bodies are latched onto ours and ours to theirs, fastened into a family.)

24. Number One is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions by Steve Martin (and Harry Bliss) - Very breezy graphic novel/memoir from Steve. Basically, he and Harry had some conversations where Steve told him some anecdotes about working in Hollywood, and Harry illustrated these. Then, about halfway through, it simply is a collection of one-panel comics that the two of them created. Most of those are just mildly amusing, although there was one that did cause me to laugh out loud. The stories were entertaining - although most of those weren't exactly super deep, either - and I wish there had been more of those in this. This wasn't bad at all, just ...extremely light and popcorn-y. (Me three!)

25. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E.Schwab - Epic doorstopper of a vampire novel. I have really liked other books by this author, and this one was no different. We started in 1540 following a young girl, Maria, who meets a mysterious widow, Sabine, coming through her village. Ten years later, the Maria is about to be put into a forced marriage, when she meets Sabine again - who has not aged at all. As Maria gets to know Sabine more - and vent about how unhappy she is with her husband and his family - Sabine offers Maria a unique opportunity to change her life. Turns out that Sabine is a vampire, and Maria jumps at the chance to become one too. We follow Maria through the centuries as she learns the ways of vampire life, and uncovers aspects about hunger, hunting, and want. There is a side-plot focusing on a young woman in the modern day named Alice, who has woken up after a one night stand with a strange woman feeling...changed. Eventually the two plots entangle, but, I have to admit that Alice's storyline was not NEARLY as intriguing to me as Maria's - although Maria takes on Sabine's name pretty early on in her life, so calling her Maria feels weird. She was Sabine for far, far, longer than she was Maria. ANYWAY, the point is that Sabine's story and arc were the main draw for this. Although Alice had her moments too.  Ultimately, this was just a really great 600 page book about lesbian vampires throughout history that I had a fun time with.  (And she is hungry.)

26. The Ravenous by Amy Lukavics - UGGGH. The Cane family is comprised of 5 sisters, their alcoholic mother, and their workaholic, largely absent father. One day during an argument between the siblings and the mom, the youngest sister is accidentally pushed down some stairs, and breaks her neck, dying instantly. Mom panics, and takes the girl's body somewhere, leaving the other 4 alone for a day or two. Mom comes back, and the little girl is alive again. Hooray. But, oh no, now she occasionally wants to eat raw meat, and sometimes acts violent, and also the mom doesn't want her to see her reflection for some reason. I feel like this YA novel COULD have been decent - there is some stuff that could have been mined with the characters and the situation. But, holy crap, was it bungled here. NOBODY in this novel acts like a normal human being would in any of the situations they're put into. Details that should have been spent pages upon are glossed over, and the dialog was just painfully bad. I'm not the world's greatest writer, and yes, it was a young adult book, but, blah. This was just bad. I only finished it because I wanted to see what would happen (nothing amazing, or memorable) or if it would get any better (it did not.) (I'm starving.)

27. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - Fun. Looking forward to the movie. Plot: The sun, and other stars in the galaxy are dimming because of some space germ that is eating the sun. There's one nearby-ish star that is NOT dimming, maybe that can save humanity? Gotta build a spaceship and send a crew on a one-way mission to get answers. Only one member of the crew makes it to the star, and he has amnesia. Can he figure out: a) who he is. b) what he's doing on this ship. c) why that star isn't being eaten by the space germ. and d) a way to get that info back to Earth?  This was very much like The Martian, which I also enjoyed. There were a lot of science-y explanations and also a bunch of hand-wavy moments, but, I largely found this to be a good popcorn flick type book. (Twelve kids raise their claws.)