Author: John Ajvide Lindqvist  Genre: Paranormal, Horror Original publication date: May 2004 Book Description (from GoodReads):  It is autumn 1981 when the inconceivable comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenage boy is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last—revenge for the bullying he endures at school, day after day. But the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door—a girl who has never seen a Rubik's Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There is something wrong with her, though, something odd. And she only comes out at night. Thoughts: This is weird! In a disturbing way. I like the story in a way, the way the supernatural entity is explored, the actions make sense, the consequences of their existence. That part was good.  The storyline of a bullied boy that manages and how ...

Author: Allen Eskens Series: Joe Talbert #1 Original publication date: October 2014 Book description (Good Reads):  College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe's life is ever the same. Carl is a dying Vietnam veteran--and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home, after spending thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder. As Joe writes about Carl's life, especially Carl's valor in Vietnam, he cannot reconcile the heroism of the soldier with the despicable acts of the convict. Joe, along with his skeptical female neighbor, throws himself into uncovering the truth, but he is hamstrung in his efforts by having to deal with hi...

Author: F.C. Yee Series: The epic crush of Genie Lo #1 Genre: Fantasy, mythology  Original publication date: Book Description (from Good Reads):  Genie Lo is one among droves of Ivy-hopeful overachievers in her sleepy Bay Area suburb. You know, the type who wins. When she’s not crushing it at volleyball or hitting the books, Genie is typically working on how to crack the elusive Harvard entry code. But when her hometown comes under siege from hellspawn straight out of Chinese folklore, her priorities are dramatically rearranged. Enter Quentin Sun, a mysterious new kid in class who becomes Genie’s self-appointed guide to battling demons. While Genie knows Quentin only as an attractive transfer student with an oddly formal command of the English language, in another reality he is Sun Wukong, the mythological Monkey King incarnate—right down to the furry tale and penchant for peaches. Suddenly, acing the SATs is the least of Genie’s worries. The fates of her friends, family...

Author: Thoms Harris   Series: Hannibal Lecter #2 Genre: Mystery, Thriller Original publication date: 1988 Book description: To catch a killer FBI trainee Clarice Starling is in search of a serial killer who bonds with his victims in unspeakable ways. There is only one way to find him. By unlocking the secrets of another man who once also killed mercilessly. She'll have to enter the mind of Dr Hannibal Lecter, confined to a state hospital for the criminally insane, is charming, brilliant, and seductive. He's willing to give Clarice what she needs. If Clarice gives him what he wants.  Thoughts: This has a slow start in a way but since the very first chapters, one of the mysteries is established. We already know Crawford and you start to get to know Clarice. But as it is the beginning you're not too interested in them as characters. Clarice is a likable and relatable young woman and you start to get worried not only about the life-death situation but about munda...

For the beginning of the month, I participated in two Readathons. So I will do a wrap up of those two first ones that ended on the 13th. The first one was HOCUS POCUS READATHON. The goal was to cast a Spell to become immortal. Goal accomplished! It consisted of 7 challenges out of them, 6 were reading related. Read a total of 6 books. In those the total pages read were 2,263 In average it represented 377.67 pages per book  Not bad for the first two weeks of the month but yeah most of the book were on the shorter side. The second readathon accomplished was #AYearAThon in which we had to read a thriller. In a very good coincidence, these two overlapped allowing me to use a book from the previous challenges to cover this one as well. For this readathon only one book was finished, Misery and this one contained 370 pages.

Author: Stephen King  Genre: Horror, Thriller Original publication date: May 1987 Book Description (from Good Reads): Paul Sheldon. He's a bestselling novelist who has finally met his biggest fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes and she is more than a rabid reader - she is Paul's nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. But she is also his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house. Thoughts: The book was picked and it was supposed to be horror but then I was unsure if it was really going to be. IT was. The story starts off with Paul waking up after an accident, his memory is foggy and does not really know what happened. He is not in a hospital, there is a woman taking care of him. Soon he realizes that she is not exactly sane and her crazy is dangerous for him.  It is a very enchanting story.  Annie is a very perturbed person. She has anger issues, she is obsessed with the story Paul wrote and which he ended up hating. They start off...

Author: Carmen Maria Machado Genre: Short Stories Original Publication date: October 2017 Book description: Debut novel, highly recommended, marketed as a feminist short story collection. Real Good Reads description:  In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. A wife refuses her husband's entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store's prom dresses. One woman's surgery-indu...