westernskynaida's reviews
134 reviews

I’ve met Kendra Merritt at a couple of craft shows and at Fan Expo. I bought two of the Mark of the Least series. I had originally begun Catching Cinders but due to mental health and some physical health issues, it’s been on hold. My book club chose By Wingéd Chair as our July book. So I flew through this book.

The first 20-30 pages or so are bit slow to get into the mindset in if you’re not usually a fantasy reader, but once things pick up, they REALLY pick up.

This book is a great show for discrimination - whether it’s for the humans that we are mostly following or for the most adorable fantasy creature that I’m glad I was able to experience in this book. It also touches on grief and trying to heal from terrible things that may have happened to you.

I would definitely recommend this to someone who would like some good rep for a wheelchair user (I hope that’s the right term)

I can’t wait to continue my reading of Catching Cinders after this

This book is difficult to get my brain around but I’ll try

This has a lot of the same vibes of a modern Lord of the Flies (which I was never a big fan of), but set in a school. It’s also the story of revenge and some pretty disturbing things that occurred between the different perspectives

As far as the story, I feel this is better to go into blind (or as blind as you can) to get the right feel for things

Honestly, if you’ve heard praise for this by other people, I recommend it. But it’s definitely not my favorite 

I made it about a third of a way into this book and I considered finishing it but honestly I just kept thinking “I want to just read the Russian Sleep Experiment”

My main thoughts on this are that the doctor feels kind of Mary Sue-ish, and every female that’s in this book seems weirdly attracted to him. Which normally wouldn’t be an issue, but I was more interested in the actual experiment and not the…fluff? Filler? Whatever you want to call it

Honestly, if you’re wanting to read it - go for it but I’d personally just stick with the original Creepypasta 

I read this after reading Project Hail Mary, which is one of my favorite books I’ve read in the last year of getting back into reading. I also have never seen the movie - so I literally went into this blind because I hadn’t seen the trailer since the movie first came out. Anyways, onto my thoughts on this

While a lot of people may not enjoy the smart assery of the main character, I personally loved it. It’s part of why I loved PHM as well. This only lost a fraction of a point because I didn’t just hurry through this one because I definitely couldn’t really handle some of the slower bits

I’m looking forward to watching the movie when I can buy it. I may have some potatoes for dinner tomorrow for Mark

I’ve heard a lot of mixed things about Coates - that most books are kind of a “cozy” style

This book however was not “cozy”

I picked this up because I was trying to find some good horrors/thrillers that were mountain based. I like the premise of the trapped in a storm and there’s something/someone out there picking off the people one by one. What I wasn’t expecting was the gore fest that happened with this book

I did call something in the first 20 pages of the book, but I was second guessing that initial guess up until the last 40 pages because things were just…so paranoia inducing

All in all, definitely recommend this - especially if you’ve never read anything by Coates

This wasn’t….terrible. I can see why a lot of people enjoyed it. If definitely had some disturbing parts but I was kind of expecting…more? 

I’m not sure. But I’m happy with how it ended. It makes me want to read The Willows again 

This is a relatively short read. And I was somewhat worried when I started this because I’ve see. Such mixed reviews for this. I really enjoyed Mister Magic and I like amusement park horror/thrillers so figured with it being under 300 pages, it would be easy to read

There are 14 “main” characters and it may seem somewhat overwhelming but for how this book works, I feel that the description of the 14 fits and makes it easier to remember what each character’s “core” was

I actually really enjoyed the mystery of what the horror was, and there even seemed to be a bit of cosmic horror sewn into it

Honestly the fact that Linda sees the 14 as selfish, lazy and good for nothing really shows her disconnect with the people they had chose for the season. Each character, while yes chose to take the deal for their own reasons, they all (except maybe Jayden) had a good reason to have taken the deal. They want to make friends, maybe this’ll help me get a job, wanting to help the person they can’t help anymore. It’s really a sad irony being stuck so far in the past that she never really looked towards the younger generation

Wow um…yay commentary? Anyways, if you’re looking for a short read, I definitely recommend this

I didn’t think a horror book that dealt with haunted puppets and family trauma would make me cry, but I legit almost shed some tears at the end of this book

Some of the characters were insufferable at the beginning of the book, and I almost stopped because I didn’t want to read them anymore. But the more I read, the more I actually enjoyed the character

This is the second book by Hendrix that I’ve read, and he’s become of my favorites for horror. I’ve got a few more from him on my list and I’ll definitely read it after clearing my pallet with some other books

This picks up almost immediately after the first book. This has a little bit of a slow start, but the first one did as well. Once you hit the rhythm, things go fast

I enjoyed following the little ragtag group of people who helped Jane and Katherine on their journey. Some parts shocked me (I definitely gasped out loud a couple of times)

Definitely a good follow up to Dread Nation

I read this fairly quickly - which is nice because I’ve been on a big struggle bus for consistently reading the last few weeks

The science in this book isn’t hard to follow and makes sense for someone who really has no idea about quantum mechanics or astrophysics

There were some parts in this that made my heart just hurt but I highly recommend it to someone who may have heard about this book on social media

I will mention that I’m not going to go into plot points for this as I feel like you need to experience it yourself without too many precognitions