Finished 5 in March.
1.The Outsiders by SE Hinton. Though I’m over 30 years beyond the age of the target audience, I did enjoy this story of teen age trials and conflicts in a small Oklahoma town in the 1960’s. I remember seeing the movie around 40 years ago, and glad I’ve finally read the book. 4 / 5
2. Riding the Nightmare was another solid collection by Lisa Tuttle. There’s not really a bad story in the collection. Favorites were ‘The Mezzotint’ (a homage to MR James) and ‘The Third Person’ ( vengeful ghost story). 3.8 / 5
3. Apocalypse Scenarios by Mira Grant was another solid collection with all (most) of the stories pertaining to the end of the world. This was a collection of four novellas (all previously published as stand alones by Subterranean Press) and two short stories. I basically picked this up to read ‘Rolling in the Deep’, the prequel novella to Into the Drowning Deep. The prequel is a fun read, though it doesn’t really add anything new to the story if you’ve read the novel. For the life of me, I can’t figure out the astronomical prices for this novella on the secondary market! All of the stories in AS are pretty good, though Grant does get rather preachy at times. Favorite story was one of the shorts, ‘Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box’, where a regular friendly get together turns deadly when the true identity of one of its members is revealed. 4 / 5
4. Devoted was the first Dean Koontz novel I’ve read in 20 years. I picked it up mainly due to comparisons with The Watchers, my favorite Koontz book. Though any similarities are superficial, I did enjoy the first half of Devoted. It’s in the second half that the story fell apart. The last third felt completely disjointed from the previous 2/3, and the overly saccharine ending required more suspension of disbelief than I could give it. 2.5 / 5
5. The Burning Girls was a mystery set in a small English village by CJ Tudor. Over lapping a centuries old legend (the burning girl martyrs) with a recent local mystery (the disappearance of two teen age girls 30 years prior), Tudor keeps the read guessing throughout this fast paced story. I’ve liked each new Tudor book a little better than the last, and The Burning Girls is her best yet. Best book I’ve read in the first quarter of 2024. 5 / 5
B
1.The Outsiders by SE Hinton. Though I’m over 30 years beyond the age of the target audience, I did enjoy this story of teen age trials and conflicts in a small Oklahoma town in the 1960’s. I remember seeing the movie around 40 years ago, and glad I’ve finally read the book. 4 / 5
2. Riding the Nightmare was another solid collection by Lisa Tuttle. There’s not really a bad story in the collection. Favorites were ‘The Mezzotint’ (a homage to MR James) and ‘The Third Person’ ( vengeful ghost story). 3.8 / 5
3. Apocalypse Scenarios by Mira Grant was another solid collection with all (most) of the stories pertaining to the end of the world. This was a collection of four novellas (all previously published as stand alones by Subterranean Press) and two short stories. I basically picked this up to read ‘Rolling in the Deep’, the prequel novella to Into the Drowning Deep. The prequel is a fun read, though it doesn’t really add anything new to the story if you’ve read the novel. For the life of me, I can’t figure out the astronomical prices for this novella on the secondary market! All of the stories in AS are pretty good, though Grant does get rather preachy at times. Favorite story was one of the shorts, ‘Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box’, where a regular friendly get together turns deadly when the true identity of one of its members is revealed. 4 / 5
4. Devoted was the first Dean Koontz novel I’ve read in 20 years. I picked it up mainly due to comparisons with The Watchers, my favorite Koontz book. Though any similarities are superficial, I did enjoy the first half of Devoted. It’s in the second half that the story fell apart. The last third felt completely disjointed from the previous 2/3, and the overly saccharine ending required more suspension of disbelief than I could give it. 2.5 / 5
5. The Burning Girls was a mystery set in a small English village by CJ Tudor. Over lapping a centuries old legend (the burning girl martyrs) with a recent local mystery (the disappearance of two teen age girls 30 years prior), Tudor keeps the read guessing throughout this fast paced story. I’ve liked each new Tudor book a little better than the last, and The Burning Girls is her best yet. Best book I’ve read in the first quarter of 2024. 5 / 5
B
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