by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 22, 2023 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Justin Cronin delivers a compelling and fantastic book with his new release, The Ferryman. He seamlessly blends psychology, action, character study, and dystopian elements. Plus, the twists kept coming during the entire second half. If that’s not enough, I can’t wait...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Oct 31, 2022 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Books about witches are the perfect fit for fall. I dusted off my copies of Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic series and embarked on a two-month project. Then I read a brand-new book from Megan Giddings with a unique and thought-provoking witchy premise. Combining all...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 12, 2022 | RELAX: Other Relaxation
Elsewhere from Alexis Schaitkin is a melancholy, unsettling book. The setting is an imaginary town, high in the mountains. It’s so near the mountaintop that the clouds settle in there during the evenings. And some mornings, the townspeople wake up to a terrible event....
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 25, 2022 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Emily St. John Mandel wrote Station Eleven in the early 2010s and published it in 2014. So this is technically a backlist choice. However, with the pandemic-related storyline and the recent HBO adaptation, Station Eleven is more relevant than ever. I’ll review both...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 21, 2020 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Justina Ireland combines zombies with post-Civil War era uncertainties in her alternate history romp, Dread Nation. So now you know, I’ve read two zombie books by Black authors in as many months. Thankfully, this one is more action-packed and features a high-energy,...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Oct 2, 2019 | RELAX: Other Relaxation
I wanted to love the new Gilead book from Margaret Atwood. I wanted that so much. And it didn’t happen for me. She tells a tale that pales in comparison to both The Handmaid’s Tale book and television series. It’s not gritty, suspenseful, or driven by compelling...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Sep 28, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Rebecca Roanhorse crafts a unique fantasy tale in Trail of Lightning. The world she creates is in the near future, but has undergone some big physical and metaphysical changes. Heroine Maggie Hoskie survives The Big Water (catastrophic flooding caused by climate...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 14, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Year One by Nora Roberts is an interesting choice to follow my recent reads by Tosca Lee and J. D. Horn. It combines elements of each book into a satisfying post-pandemic adventure with a magical twist. It’s more about escaping the big city than Lee’s focus on the...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 14, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, RESIST: Feminism
A biographer, a wise woman, a wife, a daughter, and an explorer form the core of Red Clocks, from author Leni Zumas. They seem to have only one thing in common—being women living in a country where reproductive rights are more and more limited.Susan is a wife and...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 1, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, RESIST: Feminism
Christina Dalcher writes about a woman not unlike herself in her debut novel, Vox. Her main character, Dr. Jean McClellan is a PhD nuerolinguist working on research about aphasia. Well, she formerly researched language changes after brain injury. But in Dalcher’s...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Mar 22, 2018 | RELAX: Other Relaxation
I wanted to love Naomi Alderman’s The Power so much. Heck, it was one of President Obama’s 2017 favorites. I suggested it to my new (and offline!) book group, which I should have known was the kiss of death. In truth, The Power could have been so much more. Instead,...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 27, 2017 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Often an author’s first novel isn’t especially good, but Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is an exception to that general rule. Cline creates a future world with likable characters, plenty of action, and a noble quest. What more could a reader want? It also helps if...
Recent Comments