Reviewing Every Book I've Read So Far This Year 📗🌿

And it's just such a charming, light-hearted read. And it's definitely something that I wouldn't necessarily gravitate towards had I known the ins and outs of it, but I'm glad that I picked these up from the library when I did.

I absolutely tore through this book. It was such a weird engrossing read. I can't recommend it enough for people who are into these weird unhinged horror stories.

I still think it is one of the best books that I've read in 2025. So, if you're looking for something to read that is much more thought-provoking than the average horror novel that has a considerable amount of realworld trauma to it, then this is absolutely a worthwhile read and I would honestly recommend this to anyone.

It was definitely a weird interesting little novela, but it's one of those books that I would regard as like a oneanddone, which is why I ended up unhauling my copy of it because I was like, "Yeah, it was it was an interesting read for sure, but I have no interest in never reading it again."

When it gets down to it, this nolla really just explores the alienation that mental illness can inflict on those who suffer from it. and it did so in such a moving way.

Anyway, going through those, I decided that this was going to be the next book of my paused books to read and to finish, and it was a fantastic, eclectic mix of short stories. Incredibly weird, bizarre, over-the-top.

So, it's a book that you can read really in less than an hour, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the illustrations really made it for me, and it's been quite some time since I've read something that had a similar sort of vibe to this, but yeah, it's definitely a new favorite Stephen King story for me for sure.

While it didn't knock the Terror out of its number one spot, I still thought this was a tremendously enjoyable, haunting, ghostly book.

It was way too overwhelming for me, and it just made the reading of it very clunky. It really weighed down the writing.

So, I still feel like there were fragments of this book that I just wasn't able to properly understand, which is such a shame because I really thoroughly enjoyed Fo and We Spread, also by Ian Reed.

In the end, the novella left a lot to be desired and the ending was incredibly rushed and it had this kind of wink nudge type of ending that a lot of people found really disappointing, myself included.

But overall, I don't think this book was very well written. I think the plot was pretty boring.

While I did really enjoy the story and I always enjoy Alexis Henderson's writing style, I think her pros is excellent.

I will say that I think the weakest part of this book was the writing style. At times it was quite feverdreamesque and I really don't gel well with that type of writing.

This was an incredible novel. It's probably like my second or third favorite novel of the year that I've read so far.

I loved the dynamic of the girls friendships and the inner struggles that the girls have with each other. The characters felt really fleshed out and real and they really reminded me of watching Skins back in the day.

So, yeah, there's a lot of political intrigue to this. There are really fun, interesting characters. There are some really maniacal characters in this as well.

So, there is a good element of mystery to the story, but I do feel that while I did enjoy it for what it was, the ending was a bit of a letdown. It was kind of like an open ending and I feel like it would have been a bit stronger if the plot line had been kind of wrapped up in a more succinct manner.

And it's just such a charming, light-hearted read. And it's definitely something that I wouldn't necessarily gravitate towards had I known the ins and outs of it, but I'm glad that I picked these up from the library when I did.

I really like having introspective reads from time to time. Books that let me sit with them and then I sit with them for weeks afterwards, you know, just going back and thinking about things and re-evaluating things in my mind and all that sort of thing. And this was definitely one of those books for me.

I didn't find this book all that engaging. I didn't feel all that invested in Candace's story.

This was an incredibly dark, unhinged collection of short stories. They were so memorable. The characters in each short story really just jumped off the page.

There were probably only three short stories in this relating to the town that I genuinely found interesting that I genuinely thought were like spine tingling and chilling to read. All the other ones I just felt like were kind of filler, were like a little bit of fluff.

So, if you're someone who read The Watchers and you might be a little bit iffy about whether you should read Stay in the Light or whether it's worthwhile, I absolutely think that it is a really decent follow-up. definitely explores more about the lore and the history and that's something that I really enjoyed reading this time around.

I obviously really loved Tinder the Flesh and I feel like this is more kind of in line with that sort of writing style.

It was absolutely incredible. It had such a great atmosphere. I really got invested in the characters and anytime something bad happened, it would really get my heart racing.

But it also was just such an unexpected hidden gem of a horror novel. When I stumbled across it again in the used bookstore, I was like, "You're coming home with me, buddy, and I'm going to read you as soon as possible." And yeah, I was just really kind of blown away by it.

You definitely feel as a reader that you are being kind of kept at a distance and it's kind of for your own safety so that you don't get sucked into this hotel obsession. This feeling that you just can't leave it behind.

And although this nolla kind of fell short for me, there was definitely moments in this that really stood out to me and that I really enjoyed horror-wise.

And while it was still interesting and while I understood the metaphors and the themes that were explored, it didn't really stand out to me overall. So, I found this to be a very downthe-middle type of book where I didn't hate it, but I also didn't love it.

However, I absolutely love The Terror by Dan Simmons, and that will always be at the very top of my list when it comes to these types of horror novels.

It is an absolute masterpiece when you think about the time frame that this was written in. when you think about the experimental writing style and you think about how Joyce went about writing it in the first place and I think some of the elements of the story line are very relevant to today's society.

So, I felt like this was a solid 3.5 read. While I can definitely identify with areas that could have been improved upon, like I even feel like if this book had been a little bit longer, that probably would have been more beneficial and it would have been more of a satisfying read for me personally. I still really enjoyed it for what it was and I'm still thinking about the book even weeks after finishing it now.

This is probably the most entertaining book that I've read so far of the year and absolutely one of the best books that I've read so far this year.

And I was really interested to see where this would go or how a sequel to The Watchers would play out because when I read The Watchers, I really, really enjoyed it. and it definitely can be read as a standalone.

So, I still feel like there were fragments of this book that I just wasn't able to properly understand, which is such a shame because I really thoroughly enjoyed Fo and We Spread, also by Ian Reed.

I will say that I absolutely ate this book up. I love the fact that it was written by an Irish author, that it centers around Irish characters, and that there is just so many despicable things that happen within it.

The next book that I read was a random one that I picked up and it turned out to be such a blessing in disguise because I absolutely adored it. It was kind of predictable when it came to the ending, but I wouldn't use that to fault it.

But unfortunately, I didn't feel that this was a better story than The Year of the Witching, which has been my favorite book from her so far.