Get Lost in Literature

"Last March Zodiac had been writing industriously, casting his net wide; spreading his word southward." Zodiac Unmasked was the first book I read in 2025, I've managed to hold off posting the review for this specific day. Woohoo! I made it. It's also a first for me, the first true crime novel I've ever read. I originally wanted to get Zodiac by Robert Graysmith , you know the one with the infamous yellow cover. But it appears that wasn't available by e-book and I was too lazy to go to the store or library to look for a hardcopy. Zodiac Unmasked  is dedicated to exploring the theory that Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac Killer, based on witness testimony and circumstantial and coincidental evidence. It also explores additional murders, assaults, and abductions during that time period that may have been perpetrated by the Zodiac. I found this book to be very well written and well researched, taking us through the crimes and how they relate to the timeline of ...

“And even if I turned out to be entirely sane—well then, great, it meant that an alien advance party was suddenly nosing around my planet. Worse, they were lawyering up.” ― Rob Reid, Year Zero Nick Carter--not that Nick Carter--has 48 hours to save the world. Aliens owe Earth all the money in the universe because they've been stealing our music. And rather than go universally broke on music pirating fines, they want to help us self-destruct. This book was funny, but you probably won't find the meaning to life inside of it, if that's what you're looking for. It does make a few cold jabs at the digital generation; media piracy is at an all-time high because everybody's doing it, simply because everybody else is doing it. And if you like lots of science in your science fiction, this probably isn't the book for you either. There's plenty of gadgets, intergalactic travel, aliens, and fantastic alien planets, but very little logic as to how any of this is possible...

"Everything that's born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped." This is the second year in a row that I have cheated with letter X and gone with 'Ex', but I bet I'm not the only one who has so maybe that's okay. Even 'Ex' was hard to find a book that suited my reading tastes. I considered Douglas Preston's  Extinction  but found the main character unlikable after the first few chapters, and there was Excavation  by James Rollins which I just wasn't in the mood for. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, chronicles Oskar Schell's search for answers. His father dies on 9/11 and Oskar is the last one to hear his father's voice leaving him feeling both guilty and grief stricken. He plays tambourine and keeps a scrapbook, makes up inventions and bruises himself when he feels bad. But when he finds a key hi...

 "I edged Hobb away from the side of the road, where a tangle of vines draped over a bare tree like spilled entrails." What Feast at Night by T.Kingfisher We're back for another story of Alex Easton, who is headed to her family lodge and is in for a surprise. Upon arrival she and Angus find the caretaker Codrin has died in their absence and the town talks of a demon of nightmares that stalks the grounds. T. Kingfisher was inspired by Edgar Allen Poe. Now some people like Austin or Dickens, but I hold Poe to be one of the best classic writers of time. It all comes down to atmosphere. A good Gothic Horror should have a setting as ghostly as its monster and as much a character as its hero, and Kingfisher delivers. In the opening pages, it's implied that Alex is a she, which surprised me. (I'd been calling her he, up until she announced that her father had no sons.) She is an interesting character, war heroine, naive skeptic, and altogether force to be reckoned with w...

“Some roads go on and on,” the Kind One said. “And some roads end before their route. But no road goes on forever.” ― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds This is perhaps one of my shortest reviews ever, written during a reviewing slump, but I read very few titles that start with V and this was the best book of the bunch. An intergalactically famous inventor charges a ship's captain with protecting a boy. The captain's crew become a family, but her story turns to tragedy. Despite the sadness, the story ends pleasantly with hope. This book was not what I expected. It was science-light science fiction. No long-winded explanations of tech and very little tech at all. There were no wildly fantastic space battles, just the practicality of life among the stars. The narrative was not quick, but a slow burn as the characters drove the story from past to present and across the universe.

The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained by Colin Dickey "...if you could spin a wild tale with just the right mix of fact and fiction, it would burn itself indelibly in the public's minds..." Colin Dickey, The Unidentified Let me just start by saying I don't believe in Bigfoot. I'm not a Flat-Earther. I don't believe in alien abductions, although I do believe with a universe so vast as the one we have, we probably aren't the only ones living in it. And Area 51? Ok, I admit I can't imagine what they might be doing in there, so hiding a ufo is probably as good a guess as any other, even though I don't think we've ever been visited... But how would I know? I'm on this side of the security fence. As you may have guessed The Unidentified is about monsters, alien encounters, and conspiracy theories, and why we feel like we have to believe in them despite there being no scientific evidence to ...

"...the horse is a living organism and a unique individual that can develop only at his own rate. The horse is the clock, and he provides the calendar of progress." Training Strategies for Dressage Riders by Charles de Kunffy I don't know if this book is still in print, but if it is and you are a dressage enthusiast, or even just looking to improve upon your horsemanship skills, this is the book for you. Like many books written by experts in their field, there are some braggy bits in the beginning, but I am awed by how much the author emphasizes having empathy and consideration for the horse. Too many professionals today are viewing the horse as a means to an end, and we need do better by our animals, be better both as riders and as human beings. Some of the information is repetitive, but the best way to learn sometimes is through repetition. Book includes descriptions of basic, but sometimes confused, equestrian terminology like the much sought after "collection....

"Pa and William could never be on the same flight together, because there must be no chance of the first and second in line to the throne being wiped out. But no one gave a damn whom I traveled with; the Spare could always be spared.”― Prince Harry, Spare I'm not sure how to review a memoir, I don't read many of them. With fiction I can usually pick apart the points be they good or bad, or criticize the shortcomings if they exist, but how do you review the pieces of someone's life? I really liked this book, but is it because I have a curiosity about royalty or because it was a book of substance? Spare opens with Harry's childhood and his mom's early death. First let me just say, I can't imagine growing up with people referring to me as a "spare" like, "Hey, you, you're extra, and probably a little unnecessary." What a toxic way to raise a child, no wonder he needed to get away. His mom's death shatters his world; he makes himsel...

"All the best plans are a bit risky..." Gulo the Savage, ruler of his homeland in the hard and cold North, is searching for a relic known as the Walking Stone, which has been stolen by his brother Askor. The titular character Rakkety Tam and his best friend Wild Doogy Plum are given the task of bringing the stolen royal banner home to the King and Queen in exchange for their freedom. Meanwhile in Redwall Abbey, Sister Armel has had a vision of long dead Martin the Warrior, who tells her to take his sword and deliver it to Tam, who in turn vows to protect the Abbey from those who would threaten it. When I was young, I thought the Novels of Redwall were some of the best advanced-reader children's novels on the market. They have all the hallmarks of a good children's novel. Always including poetry, songs and riddles, Brian Jacques was the master of rhyme. The characters are all talking animals, stereotypically cast again and again in predictable roles: we know mice, squi...

  "It was unseasonably warm for June. The table was set as though for a banquet: Cornelius must know of her taste and refinement, that she honored him and would provide a gracious home." Asta Eicher is mother to three wonderful children: Annabelle precocious and imaginative, simple but sweet Grethe, and protective Hart. She takes care of her sick mother-in-law Lavinia, and is loved deeply by her on/off again boarder Charles. But Asta is a widowed artist who finds herself in debt, on the edge of losing everything she and her husband had worked so hard for... So she must find a new husband, one of means, and with room in his heart for her whole family.  Then the family goes missing. Our main characters disappear and are replaced with new ones, Emily Thornhill and William Malone. Emily is an investigative journalist charged with finding out the truth about what happened to the family. William Malone, a banker, is driven by guilt; he knew something was wrong and couldn't stop...

 "His first instinct was to leave without being seen, and this puzzled him. He was a federal agent with the full authority of the United States government. This meant people had to do what he said. Even nurses and doctors. They didn’t want him to leave? Tough shit." Special Agent Ethan Burke of the US Secret Service, wakes up in the woods outside of a quiet little town called Wayward Pines. He's been in an accident and he's having trouble with his memory. He knows he needs a hospital and somewhere to stay, but he can't find his wallet... or a working telephone. The longer Ethan stays in Wayward Pines, the more he realizes the town's got a secret, and the residents will kill to protect it. I know this book was big when it came out. I downloaded a sample from Amazon and passed judgement the same day; the writing was simple, and quick to the point. This was light reading dressed up as horror. There's nothing wrong with that, but at the time I'd wanted som...

  "This is all you need, isn't it? Just one good friend. Somebody you can be stupid with. Somebody who'll peel you off the ground, prop you against the wall." Ricky, Lewis, Cass, and Gabe have been friends for a long time, but the ten-year anniversary of a hunting trip gone wrong is upon them and no one wants to talk about it. And now an entity is stalking them, like a shotgun blast from the past. This book was okay, but I wasn't wowed. I liked the characters; they were all a little rough around the edges and it gave them an air of realness because they weren't perfect angels. Sometimes it's the imperfections that matter most. The book blurb on GoodReads states, "...a novel that is equal parts psychological horror and cutting social commentary on identity politics and the American Indian experience."  And I know when it came out it was one of the best horror novels of 2020. That's how it got added to my TBR list. Now it's officially been ...

"Standing in the winner's enclosure, in the shadow of the grandstand, the Dancer was a portrait of power and glory... His moment to make history was at hand." As you may have guessed from the title, this is the story of racing legend Native Dancer, whose name belongs right up with well known thoroughbreds like Secretariat, War Admiral, and Citation. Native Dancer whose DNA courses through the blood of many modern day Kentucky Derby winners. A touch of irony; though Native Dancer won 21 of 22 starts, he's rarely remembered because he never claimed the Triple Crown. The fan favorite lost by a head at Churchill Downs even though he went on to claim the Preakness and the Belmont. Born to Alfred Vanderbilt Jr, Sagamore Farm in 1950, Native Dancer arrived during an era of change accompanied by his favorite groom Les Murray, ridden by jockey Eric Guerin, and trained by Bill Winfrey. The Depression and the war were over, and America's love affair with the television (and ...

"Earthquakes couldn’t crush us, floods couldn’t drown us, fires were too slow to catch us. Sulfur and brimstone were irrelevant. We were the gods of our own alternate universe. Inside the mortal world but over it, never slaves to its laws, only our own." Few books have incited as much Love and Hate as The Twilight Saga . All I'm going to say, is if you loathed Twilight through Breaking Dawn , you aren't going to like this book much better. It's Twilight , from Edward's POV; it isn't really any darker than Bella's POV, after all it is a vampire novel intended to be palatable for 13-year-old girls. It was never intended to be use as horror or erotica. If you loved Twilight, just the way it was, this book is for you. I feel like Stephenie Meyer has come a long way. She maintains the same level of teenage angst, self-flagellation, desperately sickeningly sweet love affair that we came to know in the first book, but her actual writing technique has improv...

The Interprovincial Medical Institute has taken it upon itself to protect us, from ourselves. A parasitic orgnaization, it infects young minds and turns selected children into doctors. It monopolizes the medical profession entirely, forcing its human hosts into a co-dependent relationship. Baron de Verdira, a cruel ruler in a desperate countryside, is heavily reliant on the Institute's expertise to keep himself alive. His old doctor died under mysterious circumstances and it will be up to his replacement to unravel the horrors in Chateau de Verdira, just as a bitter winter descends. The baron's new doctor discovers a dangerous parasite infestation, other than its own. A strange creature with probing black legs, that's quietly propagating and subsequently killing its hosts. As the doctor investigates the newly discovered parasite, she begins to realize there is more infecting the residents of Verdira than parasites.  Leech by Hiron Ennes is being market as a "debut...

 "Sometimes terrible things happen, and they require terrible choices. In the end I suppose the difference between regretting those choices and finding peace with them is a matter of outcome..." Kate Alice Marshall, A Killing Cold  The story starts with Theo Scott, newly engaged, and her fiancé who is taking her to meet his family at their mountain retreat. But somebody is sending Theo threatening text messages and her soon-to-be-in-laws have secrets they'll do anything to protect. This might have a perfect beginning if, like me, you sometimes want instant gratification. There was no long-winded character intro to open the story, instead KAM throws her readers right into action, beginning with an exciting commute through the mountains. The setting is both idyllic and haunting. Imagine: a beautiful cabin in the woods, surrounded by snow... Romantic solitude. Unless of course you're being stalked, then that quiet wooded landscape becomes a hunting ground for monsters. T...

"...you cannot make an animal and not expect it to act alive. To be unpredictable. To escape. But they don't see that." Before I say anything about the book, I need to say Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park: The Lost World  are probably two of my all-time favorite movies so I can’t really help but compare the books to the movies. I’ve probably watched those a thousand times. The movies were perfection and set the bar high; I never read the book because I was afraid it would suck and then how would I view the movie? Alternatively, what if the book was better and then the movie suddenly sucked? The third movie was a total disappointment. It would be a long time before I figured out the third movie had no book to support it, and I would then attribute the bad plot to the fact that the story had been nothing more than box office fan fiction. So I worked up the courage and opened the book. A short summary probably isn’t necessary with the story’s fame, but just in case, here goe...

"I have a life and you have a life, however different they may be. The question is: Who has the power?" Let me start by talking about the very frustrating wait I had for this book. That its original language is Swedish, and I don't know a word of it. And if Swedish publishing was anything like the US: first run hardback, 2nd run paperback, I'd only have 2 years to wait. And then I found out the English edition was only released in Australia! Then I was irritated. No one seemed to know if the book was coming to the US. It was an additional 2 years for that decision to be made. I'm not the kind who likes to wait so I went out of my mind. And now that I've finally read the book... I love this guy! This is the camping trip from hell. Four families wake up to find that the world as they know it, disappeared over night. Nothing connects the unlucky campers, except the endless expanse of grass and the too perfect sky that they find themselves staring at with horror. ...

  "The chill came at him. The corridor he was standing in was several degrees colder than the rest of the hospital. The sweat on his body congealed into a cold film, made him shiver." There's a heatwave in Stockholm and nobody can shut off their electrical appliances. There seems to be an electric pulse in the air and the headaches won't stop. David loses his wife Eva in a car accident and is so grief stricken he can't bring himself to tell his son. Elvy takes care of her vegetable of a husband for years and is slightly relieved by his passing. Gustav Mahler's grandson dies in a tragic fall, leaving him without a purpose. And then the dead wake up. I loved this story. It wasn't just another zombie-apocalypse, running and screaming and hiding from mindless murder machines. It wasn't the kind of horror that made me look over my shoulder, but it left me sinking into my blanket with a chill up my spine. What the dead want most in this story, isn't brai...

"What if? Maybe those two words were the first steps out of any swamp." This is the story of Dan Lambert, a Vietnam veteran, suffering from a bad combination of PTSD, poverty, and a brain tumor. When he accidentally kills a man he must go on the run, heading south he looks for a place he can disappear. He meets a women named Arden, who is desperately and obsessively searching for a faith healer. The two are pursued by the strangest of bounty hunters, parasitic twins Flint and Clint Murtaugh and their apprentice, Elvis impersonator Pelvis Eisley. I thoroughly enjoyed this from beginning to end. It reads like a mystery, but thriller is probably more accurate a description given that we already know who the killer is. It was a fast-paced adventure through the bayous, being pursued by all manner of strange and morally gray individuals, which brings us to... The characters. They were so quirky and weird, it made no sense, and yet it worked seamlessly with the plot. A parasitic twi...

Asher is a closeted trans boy who goes to sleep every night dreaming of a circus, where he is himself for the first time. By day, he lives his worst nightmare: Catholic School. Then one night, he's transported to his fantasy world, where dreams and reality begin to blend. I was skeptical during the prologue. I was promised a story that was similar to The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern , but the prologue wasn't just comparable, it was downright derivative. The circus is even named, "The Midnight Circus." Which, to be fair, it probably is hard to name a circus that comes only at night. But then the story morphs into its own. Asher lives with his mom, a nurse who is almost never home, and cared for by his ridiculously old-fashioned and super controlling grandparents. Grandparents who drag Ash to a church designed to teach him to hate himself and pay to send him to Catholic school after an incident in which he's injured. Grandparents who, after losing their son, dec...

Happy Sunday! The Sunday Post is a weekly news meme created by the Caffeinated Reviewer . I will be posting on the first Sunday of each month and I hope you'll join me. Spring here has definitely sprung and sprung with a leak. We've been having lots of rain showers, enough to keep me inside, but not enough to end the drought. I wish the water would rise again and cover those gross stains on rocks and shorelines as they normally do, but I also wish the rain would go away and leave me to my outdoor activities. I'm ready for the winter hibernation to be at an end. Right now, I'm reading at a leisurely pace to avoid burning out, spending my current reading time with The Land of Lost Things.  I am enjoying it so far, although time will tell whether or not it's good as its predecessor The Book of Lost Things.  On the subject of aforementioned burn out, I ended last year in a reading slump and am trying to find a better balance between blogging, reading, and life so it doe...

I've been a longtime fan of The Wicked Years and, because of Wicked , I have picked up as many as Gregory Maguire's books as I could. After I applied for the ARC, I sat in front of the computer screen chanting, "They'll never approve me, my blog is too small, they'll never approve me, my blog is too small..." Then a week later I got approved. Needless to say, I was pretty excited. The story starts in Quadling country with Elphie as a toddler, her mother still alive and her father trying unsuccessfully to start a mission. Like the title says, it follows her childhood as she grows up. I really liked most  of this book. The tone is sarcastic, almost playful, and sometimes a bit jaded. Elphie is portrayed as morally ambiguous, the same as when she's an adult so the evolution of Elphie rings true. She has a vicious sibling rivalry with her sister and watches on as her brother raises havoc everywhere he goes. Her curiosity is insatiable, and it runs alongside a...

  "For a long time there is only darkness and the sound of distant thunder and the hazy sensation of falling." And so we finally have it, the last book in Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series, The Desolations of Devil's Acre . The war between good and evil has come to Peculiardom with Jacob and Noor at its center. The last couple of books in the series, I reviewed negatively. I mean, come on, you have to know where you're going to get there, and the books aimlessly waffled. In this book, Ransom Riggs knows exactly where he's going, and he showed me the way with the quirky characters I've come to love and expect. This was an action-packed, fast-paced finale, with stakes that have never been higher for the cast of peculiars. There's a moment near the end, where the characters are losing hope of victory and then - plot twist. The plot twist makes Jacob's seemingly useless relationship with Noor have a use, and makes me think Mr. Riggs knew what h...

The story of Tycho and Jax continues with their journey to Emberfall, during which there's a vicious attack by scravers. With scravers terrorizing the countryside, Tycho worries about the consequences of his promise to Nakiis. Prince Rhen orders Tycho away to warn the King and once again he finds himself riding away from Jax. Callyn's story opens with her chasing the princess through the palace, part of her new job as Sinna's lady in waiting. Soon it becomes her responsibility to figure out why the Queen was attacked, trapping her in a game of politics that may turn deadly. I'm going to start by saying, Jax and Tycho are sooooo sweet. They're sweet together and sweet to each other. If you are looking for a lighthearted romantasy that makes you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, this book's opening salvo fits the bill. But as wonderful as it is it can't stay that way for long. Their relationship becomes strained by the necessity of finding balance between the...

Birdie is a flighty, free spirited single mother who drinks too much and despite her love for her daughter, harbors a secret desire for freedom from responsibility. One morning she meets Arthur, a recluse who lives in the mountains. He's a bit odd, talking only in present tense and the townspeople mostly eschew his company with the exception of his father Warren, Birdie and her daughter, Emaleen. As their relationship deepens, Arthur invites Birdie and Emaleen to come live with him in his derelict cabin... But Arthur harbors a dark secret that he keeps from his new family. The setting of the book takes place in rural Alaska and the descriptions of the scenery, flora, and fauna are positively decadent. I've never been to Alaska (although I'd love to visit) but Eowyn Ivey's writing makes me feel right at home there. The characters are flawed in a kind of sad way, and beautiful in their own right. There's Birdie whose desire for freedom makes her somewhat selfish, goin...

"Dimly, distantly, I realize three things: the wind has come up so strongly that the small Meade tent that J.C. and I have been crouching in is flapping and banging like wash hung out to dry in a hurricane (I'd thought the noise was only in my throbbing skull)..." -Dan Simmons, The Abominable Jacob Perry is embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. After four mountain climbers go missing, he and his friends contact the mother of one of the missing men and promise to bring her son home, alive or dead. Their true goal: be the first climbers to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.  Let's start with what I liked about it.  The book was very very detailed. Everything you didn't know you wanted to know about mountain climbing is in this book... and probably some things you didn't care to know. Dan Simmons wrote this adventure in such a way that you'll feel like you are hanging off the face of a mountain, trekking waist deep in snow, and struggling for breath in the ...