Here's the start to my favorite season of all - SPOOKY SEASON!
Title: The Fetishists
Author: A.S. Coomer
Pages: 117
Rating: 2 stars
Published: March 20, 2017
Jefferson is a lawyer in Kentucky that as a fetish that is hard to find in what is considered the "normal world". He gets an invitation to a private event where you can bid and buy a person that will satisfy your fetish. Once Jefferson has his "ponygirl", everything goes wrong. He wakes up in the forest with 4 fingers missing; thumb and forefinger on one hand, and pinky and ring finger on the other.
He makes his way back to the location of the sale and he finds the house empty of living people - everybody that was part of the auctions were dead. He ends up burning the house down but gets captured by the people that ran the event, The Third Party.
Jefferson wakes up again and realizes that more of body parts were cut off and his eyelids sewn shut. He eventually finds out who his captures are and is forced to participate in the horror and gore that The Third Party participated in.
The book went into a direction I was not expecting; I assumed this book would be a fetish gone wrong, which is what happened, but I wasn't expecting the brutality of the main character and The Third Party. This book felt like it was brutality for brutality's sake. I honestly couldn't tell you what really happened. A lot happened but nothing was very cohesive.
I had such high hopes for this book, I like books that are messed up, but this one fell flat.
Title: The Maidens
Author: Alex Michaelides
Pages: 352
Rating: 2.5 stars
Published: June 15, 2021
This book was such a disappointment. It had amazing potential with the Greek mythology theme, but it failed horribly.
Mariana is a group therapist that had recently lost her husband, her father, and her sister. With the death of her sister Mariana and her husband inherited her daughter, Zoe.
Zoe goes to Cambridge where her friend was found murdered. This friend was part of The Maidens.' This group of girls belong to an American professor named Edward Fosca, who Mariana was 100% convinced that he was the culprit. But she couldn't get around the puzzle of why he would target one of his "elite" students. Fosca taught Greek tragedies and The Maidens were a symbol of Persephone and Demeter's relationship; The Maidens being Persephone, while Fosca is Demeter.
Mariana spirals when another Maiden is found murdered and Fosca keeps acting more and more suspicious. She spends the rest of the book trying to prove that Fosca is guilty and becomes obsessive.
The twist of the book is very disappointing. It felt very forced and attempted to be some grand revelation. Instead of being an amazing twist, it was very frustrating and didn't make sense.
I have a few bones to pick with this book:
1) It turns out that Fosca was having sexual relationships with The Maidens and he was abusing them mentally and sexually. The book just glides past the fact that he did some serious harm to these girls and essentially got away with it. He did get arrested at the end of the book but he didn't get the punishment that he deserved. Kind of made it like the assaults were like an off-hand thing that he did. It rubbed me the wrong way.
2) Mariana was one of the most boring characters I've ever read about. She had absolutely no depth and no character development. It was just so frustrating.
I would not recommend this book.
Title: The Death of Mrs. Westaway
Author: Ruth Ware
Pages: 372
Rating: 4 stars
Published: May 29, 2018
Hal Westaway is a young woman who is in debt to a ruthless loan shark and is trying to make a living reading tarot cards on the pier of Brighton. She receives a letter from a solicitor in Penzance saying that she is to inherit a large sum from her recently deceased grandmother. The only problem is is that Hal's grandparents, that she knows about, passed away 20 years prior.
Hal travels to Penzance and is greeted by one of the uncles she never knew about. They travel to the estate and meet the rest of the family. During her time with the family and roaming the estate she learns about a family secret that involves her and her mystery father, and she is bound and determined to solve the mystery.
This is my first book by Ruth Ware and I really enjoyed it. Her writing style was entertaining and I enjoyed the gothic themes of a semi-deserted estate with a creepy caretaker and a family that has more secrets than MI-5. I think Ruth Ware wanted the identity of Hal's father to be a big shock but you could see it a mile away. She tried to convince you throughout a quarter of the book but it's pretty apparent who it ends up being. Despite the obvious twist I really enjoyed the book.
Title: Rock Paper Scissors
Author: Alice Feeney
Pages: 291
Rating: 5 stars
Published: September 7, 2021
What an amazing twist! I did not see it coming!
Title: The Vanishing
Author: Wendy Webb
Pages: 291
Rating: 3.5 stars
Published: January 21, 2014
Julie Bishop needs a fresh start after her husband pulled the biggest Ponzi-scheme of the 21st century and everybody in her life isolated her. She gets her chance to vanish when the son of her favorite horror novelist gives her an opportunity she couldn't refuse: to become his mom's companion. When Julie arrives at the house she learns that she might have bitten off more than she can chew.
This was my first book by Wendy Webb and I did enjoy it. I did like Webb's descriptions of the mansion and of the library, I was able to place myself in this beautiful gothic mansion. I also enjoyed the premise of the book of being able to vanish from society. Some days I would love to do that; get to live in a beautiful gothic mansion in the upper midwest and get to read books all day - what's not to love.
What I didn't like about this book was that the "twist" at the end was very predictable and lackluster. It felt like the ending was just thrown together and was very disappointing.
Overall I gave this book a 3.5-star rating due to the theme of the book and the description of the mansion. It was a fun light thriller that was a quick read.
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