Hey guys so I am a bit behind on my wrap-ups. I have read a lot between October and November. I didn’t want to skip October. I have to say for such a busy month I ended up reading a lot. I am excited to share my reads with you. So let’s dive in!
Ice Cream Man Vol. 1: Rainbow Sprinkles By W. Maxwell Prince, and Martín Morazzo
Genre: Horror, Graphic Novel, Fantasy, Fiction
Pages: 144 pages
Publication Date: June 26th 2018
Publisher: Image Comics
My Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
Plot: Chocolate, vanilla, existential horror, addiction, musical fantasy…there’s a flavor for everyone’s misery.
ICE CREAM MAN is a genre-defying comic book series, featuring disparate “one-shot” tales of sorrow, wonder, and redemption. Each installment features its own cast of strange characters, dealing with their own special sundae of suffering. And on the periphery of all of them, like the twinkly music of his colorful truck, is the Ice Cream Man—a weaver of stories, a purveyor of sweet treats. Friend. Foe. God. Demon. The man who with a snap of his fingers—lickety split!—can change the course of your life forever.
My Thoughts: I didn’t like this comic at all because I didn’t really get the messages behind the stories. I wasn’t really sure what it was going for. I was pretty much confused half the time reading it. Thankfully it was a comic so it was a quick read.
The Devil Crept In By Ania Ahlborn
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Adult
Pages: 374 pages
Publication Date: February 7th 2017
Publisher: Gallery
My Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Plot: Young Jude Brighton has been missing for three days, and while the search for him is in full swing in the small town of Deer Valley, Oregon, the locals are starting to lose hope. They’re well aware that the first forty-eight hours are critical and after that, the odds usually point to a worst-case scenario. And despite Stevie Clark’s youth, he knows that, too; he’s seen the cop shows. He knows what each ticking moment may mean for Jude, his cousin and best friend.
That, and there was that boy, Max Larsen…the one from years ago, found dead after also disappearing under mysterious circumstances. And then there were the animals: pets gone missing out of yards. For years, the residents of Deer Valley have murmured about these unsolved crimes…and that a killer may still be lurking around their quiet town. Now, fear is reborn—and for Stevie, who is determined to find out what really happened to Jude, the awful truth may be too horrifying to imagine.
My Thoughts: This story was told in parts. I have to say there were certain parts that I liked more than the others so it kinda took my enjoyment out of the book. Plus I found the main character super annoying. I know he is a kid but I wasn’t a fan of him at all. I will still check out other books from this author, this one just didn’t do it for me.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer By Michelle McNamara, Gillian Flynn (Goodreads Author) ,and Patton Oswalt
Genre: Nonfiction, True Crime, Mystery
Pages: 352 pages
Publication Date: February 27th 2018
Publisher: Gallery Books
My Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Plot: A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case.
“You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark.”
For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.
Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called “the Golden State Killer.” Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.
At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by Michelle’s lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.
My Thoughts: This is a book I enjoyed but I had a hard time focusing on it. It’s a book I need the physical copy of for me to fully grasp everything that is being said. This is a book I plan to hopefully pick up again in the future so I can get the fully story of everything. I do think it is cool that after this was released they put the person who they believed was the Golden State Killer.
Welcome to Lovecraft By Joe Hill (Goodreads Author), and Gabriel Rodríguez
Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novel
Pages: 168 pages
Publication Date: February 2013
Publisher: IDW Publishing
My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Plot: Locke & Key tells of Keyhouse, an unlikely New England mansion, with fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them. Home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all…
My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this comic a lot. I thought it was really interesting. It had a lot of spooky elements to it. There is so much I’m curious about. I have the box set of it so I am excited to read more and hopefully have all my questions answered.
The Cheerleaders By Kara Thomas
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller, Contemporary
Pages: 384 pages
Publication Date: July 31 2018
Publisher: IDW Publishing
My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Plot: There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook.
First there was the car accident—two girls gone after hitting a tree on a rainy night. Not long after, the murders happened. Those two girls were killed by the man next door. The police shot him, so no one will ever know why he did it. Monica’s sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad. No one wanted to be reminded of the girls they lost.
That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But for Monica, it’s not that easy. She just wants to forget. Only, Monica’s world is starting to unravel. There are the letters in her stepdad’s desk, an unearthed, years-old cell phone, a strange new friend at school. . . . Whatever happened five years ago isn’t over. Some people in town know more than they’re saying. And somehow Monica is at the center of it all.
There are no more cheerleaders in Sunnybrook, but that doesn’t mean anyone else is safe.
My Thoughts: I always look forward to Kara Thomas’s books. I always really enjoy her writing. This book was no different. I really enjoyed how there are so many different characters and so many of them you can’t trust. So I had like all these theories throughout the book but had no idea what really happened until the end. I was very surprised by the ending. This was such an intense ride.
Orphan Monster Spy By Matt Killeen
Genre: Young Adult, Historical, Fiction, War, Thriller
Pages: 423 pages
Publication Date: March 20 2018
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
My Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
Plot: After her mother is shot at a checkpoint, fifteen-year-old Sarah–blonde, blue-eyed, and Jewish–finds herself on the run from a government that wants to see every person like her dead. Then Sarah meets a mysterious man with an ambiguous accent, a suspiciously bare apartment, and a lockbox full of weapons. He’s a spy, and he needs Sarah to become one, too, to pull off a mission he can’t attempt on his own: infiltrate a boarding school attended by the daughters of top Nazi brass, befriend the daughter of a key scientist, and steal the blueprints to a bomb that could destroy the cities of Western Europe. With years of training from her actress mother in the art of impersonation, Sarah thinks she’s ready. But nothing prepares her for her cutthroat schoolmates, and soon she finds herself in a battle for survival unlike any she’d ever imagined.
My Thoughts: So I really should have known I wasn’t going to like this book. I am not really into historical fiction. I do have some I like but it depends on what other elements the story has in it. I honestly was so bored during this story. I honestly can’t really tell you much of what happened in this book because I barely remember. I only remember the beginning. It just wasn’t for me.
The Lying Woods By Ashley Elston
Genre: Mystery, Young Adult, Thriller
Pages: 336 pages
Publication Date: November 13 2018
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Plot: Owen Foster has never wanted for anything. Then his mother shows up at his elite New Orleans boarding school cradling a bombshell: his privileged life has been funded by stolen money. After using the family business, the single largest employer in his small Louisiana town, to embezzle millions and drain the employees’ retirement accounts, Owen’s father vanished without a trace, leaving Owen and his mother to deal with the fallout.
Owen returns to Lake Cane to finish his senior year, where people he can barely remember despise him for his father’s crimes. It’s bad enough dealing with muttered insults and glares, but when Owen and his mother receive increasingly frightening threats from someone out for revenge, he knows he must get to the bottom of what really happened at Louisiana Frac–and the cryptic note his father sent him at his boarding school days before disappearing.
Owen’s only refuge is the sprawling, isolated pecan orchard he works at after school, owned by a man named Gus who has his own secrets–and in some ways seems to know Owen better than he knows himself. As Owen uncovers a terrible injustice that looms over the same Preacher Woods he’s claimed as his own, he must face a shocking truth about his own past–and write a better future.
My Thoughts: I was so excited when Ashley sent me the arc of this. I met her last year and became a huge fan of her after reading This is Our Story. This story did not disappoint. Ashley is a great storyteller. She gives you the information little by little that you just keep wanting more. Plus it’s told in different perspectives. One is told in the present and the other is the past. I really liked how this book ended. I can’t wait for her next book.
Scythe (Arc of a Scythe) By Neal Shusterman
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Pages: 435 pages
Publication Date: November 22 2016
Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Plot: Thou shalt kill.
A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.
Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.
My Thoughts: This was such an enjoyable book. I honestly would have given it 5 stars if it didn’t have a what I felt was an unnecessary romance. I really felt it could have done with it. It didn’t add anything to the story. Besides that, I thought it was a very unique story. One that kept me hooked from beginning to end. I felt it was very action packed and just super enjoyable. I actually am currently reading Thunderhead right now. I am very excited to see what is going to happen.
Game of Thrones By George R.R. Martin
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction
Pages: 848 pages
Publication Date: August 6th 1996
Publisher: Bantam
My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Plot: Here is the first volume in George R. R. Martin’s magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever experienced. Already hailed as a classic, George R. R. Martin’s stunning series is destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction.
A GAME OF THRONES
Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.
Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.
My Thoughts: I am a huge fan of the shows, so I knew it was time I should read the book. I really enjoyed this one a lot because everything that happens in the book pretty much happens in the show. So I could picture majority of the book in my head since I’ve watched season one a good amount of times. This book is very intense and has so much going on. It took me forever to finish it. I am excited to move onto the next one.
City of Ghosts By Victoria Schwab
Genre: Fantasy, Childrens, Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 272 pages
Publication Date: August 28th 2018
Publisher: Scholastic
My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Plot: Cassidy Blake’s parents are The Inspectres, a (somewhat inept) ghost-hunting team. But Cass herself can REALLY see ghosts. In fact, her best friend, Jacob, just happens to be one.
When The Inspectres head to ultra-haunted Edinburgh, Scotland, for their new TV show, Cass—and Jacob—come along. In Scotland, Cass is surrounded by ghosts, not all of them friendly. Then she meets Lara, a girl who can also see the dead. But Lara tells Cassidy that as an In-betweener, their job is to send ghosts permanently beyond the Veil. Cass isn’t sure about her new mission, but she does know the sinister Red Raven haunting the city doesn’t belong in her world. Cassidy’s powers will draw her into an epic fight that stretches through the worlds of the living and the dead, in order to save herself.
My Thoughts: I have been dying to read a Victoria Schwab book for the longest time. I am a little sad my first book by her was middle grade but I did really enjoy it. I thought it was a very fun and entertaining story. Plus it takes place in Edinburgh. I have never been but I do my best to picture it from the descriptions. The only real compliant I have is that the main character felt a little older than she actually was. Other than that I really enjoyed it.
Sour Candy By Kealan Patrick Burke
Genre: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Novella
Pages: 67 pages
Publication Date: November 13 2018
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing
My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Plot: At first glance, Phil Pendleton and his son Adam are just an ordinary father and son, no different from any other. They take walks in the park together, visit county fairs, museums, and zoos, and eat together overlooking the lake. Some might say the father is a little too accommodating given the lack of discipline when the child loses his temper in public. Some might say he spoils his son by allowing him to set his own bedtimes and eat candy whenever he wants. Some might say that such leniency is starting to take its toll on the father, given how his health has declined.
What no one knows is that Phil is a prisoner, and that up until a few weeks ago and a chance encounter at a grocery store, he had never seen the child before in his life.
My Thoughts: I really don’t have too much to say about this besides it’s crazy. The whole time I was just shocked by everything that was going on. It blew my mind. I ended up enjoying every second of it. I really want to read more from Kealan soon. He is a great writer.
Have you guys read any of these books? If so what did you think? What books did you guys end up reading October? I would love to hear from you!
Bookish In Bed 
Oh my goodness. We read three of the same books. What a coincidence. I had a feeling I was going to like sour candy because a lot of people talk about it on the Horror section of twitter but I loved his writing as well as the story. Plus it’s such a short read it’ll definitely be read again.
I’m just finishing up blog hopping and then I SWEAR I’ll start Thunderhead (idk why you keep doing buddy reads with me because it always takes me forever to start and then we just binge it as soon as I do)
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Damn I didn’t realize we read three books together. That’s just wild. Yeah his writing was really good. Plus damn the ending though. That broke my heart. Never have high hopes when reading horror because you will be crushed.
Our buddy reads are so much fun. I can’t take deny myself them. Plus I feel like I’ve been slacking on this buddy read. I need to step up it up.
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Well I mean sour candy was really short…. Maybe that feeling of being crushed is why we like reading were so much.
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Yeah I do like how short it is. I am happy I ended up reading it before work. Yeah I mean it is nice to not have everything be all happy and a good ending but sometimes you’re rooting for something to happen. I feel unhappy endings are unexpected more. We like unexpected.
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I love unhappy endings 😂😂 they’re so much more fun
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I do too but sometimes I just feel bad for the character like shit.
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