Okay, I’m going to be upfront here that this was a book club pick (my book club pick, actually), and we broke a cardinal rule: never read the first in a series. It’s incredibly difficult to judge character arcs and abandoned plot lines, because you know that the story is only just beginning. That also makes it difficult to write a fair review, but I will try. Do you love whimsical stories rooted in complicated family dynamics? Apparently I do, because I adored reading this […]
“When the mist rises, and the smiling man comes walking, you must avoid large places at night.”
Ollie hasn’t been much of a people-person, but since her mother died the only solace she can seem to find is in books. On a bike ride home from school, she comes across a woman sobbing by the lake, trying to talk herself into throwing an old black book into the water. On a whim, Ollie steals the book and discovers within its pages a strange and spooky old story about the Webster family and their tragedy brought on by a sinister “smiling man.” The […]
This series is just so atmospheric.
I need to remember when it comes time to read #3 in this series that I will need at least a week to get through it. Arden’s writing is lovely and her story fascinating and absorbing, but I find it stressful as hell, and I kept having to put it down before I could keep going again. Basically every bad thing that can happen, does. (But by the end, you get a nice sense of resolution, which is necessary because of all the previously mentioned […]
It’s 90 degrees here. This made it feel like winter.
I read TheShitWizard’s review and immediately bought this book, read it, and loved it. I am all about some adult-level fairy tales. This is right up my alley. Vasya is a wild child, the fifth in her family, in Northern Russia. She inherited her mother’s and grandmother’s second sight – the ability to see and interact with the invisible guardians, or chyerti. A battle is brewing, though, between the Bear and the Frost-Demon. Konstantin, a compelling and pious priest arrives in the village and introduces […]