WWW Wednesday – November 10, 2021

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?


Currently Reading

Salems LotOver the weekend I unexpectedly had a lot more free time than I was expecting, so I managed to get a lot of reading done on ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King, where I am now just over 300 pages in. King has done an excellent job of making the infection of this town creeping and gradual. So far, most of the townsfolk are still blissfully unaware of what is going on, but it is now noticeably escalating, with a number of people having fallen under the vampire’s thrall. An effectively realistic element is how much the people clued-in to what is going on are wasting time coming to grips with the idea that it could be vampires at all. It’s especially amusing to remember this is much closer to the heyday of the classic Universal and Hammer horror films about Dracula. A sudden incursion of vampires would be hard to believe indeed, and that hesitance is so far undoing them.


Recently Finished

Once again, I’ve not finished anything. I’m really going to have to turn this around soon, for the first time all year I’m behind on my Goodreads challenge.


Reading Next

Manga Diary of a Male Porn Star 1The reading plans I’ve been talking about for the past couple of weeks are not going anywhere, so I’ll not repeat myself, but I recently borrowed a manga volume from a friend that I’m really interested in reading soon. The book in question is the first volume of Manga Diary of a Male Porn Star by Kaeruno Erefante. Though it covers more adult subject matter, it looks to be doing so in a rather PG way, depicting the humorous tribulations of being a male porn star rather than trying to be titillating. I find it especially hysterical how the main character is depicted. While surrounded by beautiful women, our protagonist looks like a bean with arms, legs, and big eyes. I’ll probably read through it in a sitting before next week.

Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

Frighteningly Good Reads 2021 Wrap-Up 

Though my schedule has had me a lot busier these past few months, over October I participated as much as I could in Frighteningly Good Reads, a laid back readathon hosted by Molly at Silver Button Books. Be sure to check out her wrap-up post too!

Ideally, I would have chosen a few more books to get through for the spooky season, but I tried to be a little more realistic for the amount of time I have for reading lately. As it turns out, results were oddly familiar to previous years anyway.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – November 3, 2021

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?


Currently Reading

Salems LotWorking two jobs took a particular toll on me this past week for some reason, but I did manage to sneak in a little bit of reading ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King anyway. I’m 117 pages in now, so I’ve managed to more than double my page count since last week, but I’ve still got a long way to go. This book has got me continually wanting to nod my head and say “vintage King” aloud with approval. I’m loving the small town setting and cavalcade of small town people. The horror factor is insidiously burrowing its way into these peoples’ lives too, and I wonder if I will slowly behold the undoing of all of them. I’m especially enjoying how much certain facets of the plot are reminding me of the plot of Dracula. I wonder how closely it will follow those lines, or if it’s only lightly referential.


Recently Finished

Nothing this week, sadly. Even my Halloween was bogged down with work. 💀


Reading Next

Scott Pilgrim Color Edition Digital OmnibusI still intend to start A Gathering of Ghosts by Karen Maitland next, but obviously that will still have to wait for at least another week. In the meantime, I do have a lot of comic books that need reading, many of which are from the two Star Wars: The High Republic series that I’ve been following. I’m way behind on those, and I’m already hearing about “phase one” of The High Republic ending soon. I think, by next week, I will make a concerted effort to start Scott Pilgrim: Digital Omnibus by Bryan Lee O’Malley as well, so I can read it again in colour. I really ought to continue Hope is the Thing with Feathers too… 😓

Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

Book Review – The Grip of It by Jac Jemc

The Grip of It

The Grip if It is a 2017 horror novel by Jac Jemc and my first Frighteningly Good Read for 2021. Married couple James and Julie have purchased their first home together in a small town just outside of the city where they met. They have decided to seek a fresh start after James’s gambling problem leaves his personal savings emptied out, putting some strain on their relationship. The transition to their new home is so seamless, however, it’s almost too good to be true.

They purchased the house, which has a forest behind it that leads to a beach, for a great price too. The seemingly innumerable hidden rooms are strange, but they provide a lot of extra storage space. And that constant deep, vibrating noise just at the edge of hearing, not unlike throat singing, is probably just the house settling, or so they tell themselves. They try their best to settle into their new home and lives, but it seems the house has other plans for them.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – October 27, 2021

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?


Currently Reading

Salems LotI was finally able to start reading ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King later last week, though I’m only about 50 pages in at the moment. I’m sad that I won’t be finishing it before Halloween, but I expected that possibility already. I’m busier than normal, and in previous years this would often happen anyway. I’m enjoying the book so far, though it’s taking its time at the moment. I didn’t realize there was a “chapter two switcheroo” so to speak, with the prologue taking place after what I can only assume is at least a huge chunk of the story. Though I know what it’s building to already, I’m enjoying the mystique being built around the Marsten House concurrently with the arrival of its mysterious new resident.


Recently Finished

The Grip of ItIn the middle of last week I finished reading The Grip of It by Jac Jemc, though regretfully I’ve not had the time to finish up a review for it just yet. I’m expecting I will have one up by Friday, just in time for Halloween. With all said and done, I did really enjoy this novel, and a prediction of mine from last week came true. It was specifically that the story would amount to something much more up to interpretation than concrete that came true, which is the lesser of two evils, I suppose. Upon reflection, the ways in which it leaves things up to interpretation are actually quite clever, because you cannot simply reduce everything to the perspective characters being unreliable. It’s a book I would love to have a long, in-person conversation about, but I don’t know anybody who has read it yet.

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (2)I also read through the graphic novel adaptation of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by I.N.J. Culbard, adapting the short story by H.P. Lovecraft. I was right, I did enjoy this story much more visually than I did Lovecraft’s prose, but there is definitely something lost when considered by itself rather than the culmination of a number of Dream Cycle stories. It helps that I’ve read them, of course, but I wish this book had instead been a part of something bigger. This isn’t even the first Lovecraft story to involve Randolph Carter, nor the numerous denizens of the dream lands that he encounters. Still, it is a worthwhile read and far more accessible than his prose, so it’s worth checking out if you’re at all curious about his work.


Reading Next

A Gathering of GhostsWith all of this consideration for Halloween going on, I actually hadn’t given much thought toward what I want to read next. With autumn still in full swing and myself continuing to be in a horror mood, however, I think I will make good on my old September plans and start reading A Gathering of Ghosts by Karen Maitland next. When this will be is hard to say, since I will probably be reading ‘Salem’s Lot for the next little while, but hopefully I can push for more reading time instead of other leisure activities to pick up the slack. Easier said than done, in practice, but we’ll see.

Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

Ten Spectacular Spooky Reads

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book meme run by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is a Halloween freebie, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to recommend some spooky reads. Honourable mentions go to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. They’re a couple of my favourite horror books, especially the former, but you hardly need me to tell you about them. The books I’ve selected are hardly unknowns, but I did try to be a little less obvious (for the most part).Read More »

WWW Wednesday – October 20, 2021

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?


Currently Reading

The Grip of ItI’m a significant amount into The Grip of It by Jac Jemc now, thanks to some free time over the weekend. I love the way the story is broken up in the small chapters, as it’s easy to say “just one more chapter” and allows for easy stopping points when necessary. I am really loving this haunted house story, which hasn’t reigned in the continually escalating sense of dread that it started off with. What I find most especially effective is that scenes that read more dreamlike are offset by others that are so matter of fact, often bringing in other characters to make events more reliable, but ultimately raising a lot more questions. My only concern right now is that all of this will lead to either something woefully open to interpretation or something dumb. It has done right by me so far, though, so I’m optimistic.


Recently Finished

Nothing this week, I focused pretty much all of my attention on The Grip of It. I expect I should have two books here by next week, though.


Reading Next

Salems LotWith Halloween approaching like a speeding ghost-locomotive, I will have to make myself read The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by I.N.J. Culbard sooner rather than later. With The Grip of It nearly finished, however, I’m also going to start reading ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. It’s a novel I’ve heard a lot about, but I really don’t know the way the story unfolds. The idea of a Dracula analog moving to and disrupting a small town community in the United States sounds really fascinating to me, though, and I hope it has some surprise scares in store for me too. As a bonus, it’ll be nice to see the origin story of Father Callahan.

Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

Book Review – Jingo by Terry Pratchett

Jingo

Jingo by Terry Pratchett is the 21st novel in the author’s comic fantasy Discworld series, and the fourth in the City Watch sub-series. After being submerged in the Circle Sea for hundreds of years, the island of Leshp suddenly resurfaces. Being exactly halfway between the city of Ankh-Morpork and Al Khali (the capital of Klatch), both cities lay claim to it for its strategic value, escalating tensions between the two. With Ankh-Morpork having a sizable population of Klatchian people, these mounting tensions begin to cause unrest within the city’s population, much to the chagrin of Commander Samuel Vimes of the City Watch and his loyal watchmen, who want nothing more than to keep the peace. After a visiting Klatchian prince is almost assassinated, it is up to the Watch to track down those secretly responsible, whom seem hellbent on ensuring that the war is inevitable.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – October 13, 2021

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?


Currently Reading

The Grip of ItEarlier today, I decided to squeeze in some time to finally start reading The Grip of It by Jac Jemc, my first Halloween read this year. It was Thanksgiving and my birthday this past long weekend, so while I brought the book just in case I found some reading time, it surprisingly didn’t happen. I’ve only read a token amount really, only the first few chapters (about 14 pages), but I’m really enjoying the tone that’s being set so far. It’s mostly been about a couple buying a new house, but the way things feel immediately off without being outright scary has been great, the use of one detail in particular making the house strange without being such a big red flag that you think you would reject it in their position.


Recently Finished

JingoI’m really pleased that last week I was able to finish reading Jingo by Terry Pratchett. If my schedule had gone a little differently, I’d probably still be in the middle of it right now. Even with it all said and done, I honestly feel a little at a loss for words about it. This was a really good Discworld novel, with some particularly great elements sprinkled throughout, but I still feel like reviewing it will be a little difficult. Is it possible, so many books into a series, that a book can be so solidly written it actually becomes unremarkable? I hope that doesn’t sound too harsh, but it feels apt all the same. I was too busy to review since last week, but I am hoping I can have one up by Friday. Fingers crossed.


Reading Next

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (2)My second Halloween novel will be ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King, but that’s a little further down the line at the moment. I have, however, finally gotten a copy of the graphic novel adaptation of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft, adapted and illustrated by I.N.J. Culbard. I first read the story in the collection Dreams of Terror and Death a couple of years ago, and while I did enjoy it at the time, due to Lovecraft’s weaknesses as an author I anticipated it making an even better graphic novel. Now that I’ve got my own copy of the adaptation, I’m eager to dig in and see it more visually realized.

Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.