Nothing to See Here is a cute, funny book with a highly improbable premise involving two children that catch on fire when they get agitated. It had me laughing out loud, which does not happen every often when I read. It is an easy novel to read and perfect if you are looking for a bit of levity after some heavy reading.
…
I purchased The Witches while I was in Salem, MA from a bookstore called Wicked Good Books, which has a special section reserved for books about the Salem witch trials. A cute historical town overrun by tourists, it is sad how modern Salem has monetized a tragic piece of American history where twenty innocent people were executed on suspicion of witchcraft and hundreds more languished in prison. I have always been fascinated by the Salem witch trials. What caused a group of girls to writhe and contort their bodies and claim that they were being attacked by witches? Why did the group of men who presided over the trials give in to the hysteria and essentially murder a bunch of innocent people? The Witches is a fascinating and detailed nonfiction account of the Salem witch trials that does its best to answer both questions with the limited resources passed down from history.
…
I hesitated a little before buying this YA novel, but Belladonna had me at “gothic”, so I could not resist. Unfortunately, Belladonna spends little time on the gothic and focuses most of its energy on the protagonist lusting after two different male characters. Seriously, this is one of the horniest characters I have read about in awhile. I found this novel to be a waste of time, and I definitely will not be reading the sequel(s).
…
I was a little worried that this one would end up being a dud, but I am pleased to report that The Book Eaters is a good novel. I think bibliophiles like me will really like this one. It is a bit on the nose with respect to its themes, but it’s characters and world-building are interesting enough to make you overlook the obviousness of the novel.
…
The Last House on Needless Street appears to have been marketed as a horror novel, but I would not call it a horror novel. It isn’t even scary, which I found disappointing; however, it is a very fascinating psychological thriller which I read through very quickly because I HAD TO KNOW HOW IT WOULD END.
…
The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs is the sequel to Katherine Howe’s first novel, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which I will admit I did not realize until I started reading it. I read Deliverance Dane over ten years ago, so I kind of wish I had re-read it before reading Temperance Hobbs, but there were enough details in Temperance Hobbs to remind me of what happened in Deliverance Dane. The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs is an okay book. It is not as interesting as The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and I think I prefer Brunonia Barry’s Salem-set novels over Katherine Howe’s (as a side note, I have also read Howe’s The House of Velvet and Glass, which was an interesting novel, but it depressed the hell out of me and so I donated it because I never want to read it again).
…