The Hacienda is a gothic novel set in Mexico, along the same vein of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic; however, I like this novel better. It features an actual haunting, not a haunting imagined by the protagonist, that made my skin crawl (although it would have been even more creepy if I had read this novel at night instead of in the bright afternoon), and it has vibes of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.
…
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).
…
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.
…I just went on a ten-day vacation to New York City, Boston/Salem and Montreal, and I managed to read FOUR books during my vacation (I spent a lot of time on planes and a train):
The Death of Jane Lawrence is one of those books that sounds like it should be good, but then it turns out not to be. Very disappointing, as I love me a gothic novel. The Death of Jane Lawrence definitely is gothic, and there were definitely creepy moments that I read through very quickly because I did not want to scare myself before going to be bed, but in the end, The Death of Jane Lawrence gets bogged down in the science of magic, and I am not entirely sure what I was that I just read.
…
Cold Cold Bones is an improvement over last year’s The Bone Code with its disappointing vaccine tampering plotline. I read the Temperance Brennan novels because I have become invested in the character and her relationships with Canadian hunky private detective Andrew Ryan, surly North Carolina detective Skinny Slidell and her daughter, Katy, who in this novel has recently been honourably discharged from the army and may be suffering from PTSD, which is causing issues between her and Tempe. But I am beginning to feel that as Kathy Reichs keeps churning out these novels, she is sacrificing Tempe’s intelligence for the sake of plot. Tempe’s behaviour is becoming more and more frustrating as she continues to defy police orders, and just plain common sense, and puts herself in unnecessary danger while acting like she is an action hero instead of a forensic anthropologist.
…
Velvet Was the Night is the second novel written by Silvia Moreno-Garcia that I have read, the first being Mexican Gothic, which I reviewed in May. I like Mexican Gothic better, despite the strange turn it takes towards the end, because I prefer gothic over noir; however, I still found Velvet Was the Night to be an engrossing read.
…
If I were to use only one word to describe The Maid by Nita Prose, it would be “cute”, much like the cat in the above picture. Do you ever have one of those days where you feel like the weight of the world has got you down, and you just want to lay on the couch or on a beach and watch/read something light-hearted and enjoyable? Well, The Maid is the novel you want to read the next time you are in that kind of mood.
…
The first time I read The Historian was way back in 2005 when it was first published. I liked it enough back then to read Kostova’s next novel, The Swan Thieves (which I have read more than once), and I decided to reread it now to see if I would still like it all these years later. If you like historical fiction, The Historian is a fascinating novel, but at the same time it can feel like a bit of a slog to read.
…
I liked Mexican Gothic, but I did not love it. It is a deliciously gothic novel set in a creepy old mansion that may or may not be haunted, but the true horror in the novel is rooted in Mexico’s colonial history and eugenics. The novel takes a bizarre turn towards the end, but I just went with it because it does fit in with the themes of the novel.
…