Review: Strangers

Strangers by Michaelbrent Collings

☆☆☆☆
Horror

This is a someone-in-your-house-is-going-to-kill-you horror. The prologue is police finding a house (with bodies and a single insane survivor) after our crazy psychotic villain has finished with them. 

The main story focuses on the villain’s next target. For some reason my brain could not figure out the link between the two; I re-read the beginning several times before the blatantly obvious explanation found me.

The villain targets families with secrets. First he messes with them psychologically, then pressures them to confess or be killed. It’s all very creative and quite creepy and sometimes gruesome. 

It’s incredibly suspenseful, and the chapters are very short, so it’s very easy to keep going (“One more chapter … “one more chapter” … ) and stay up all night reading. The problem is I cannot do this without getting a massive migraine. As it was, I spent the whole weekend with migraines because I stayed up too late anyway. (And I know Michaelbrent gets killer migraines.)

A must if you enjoy horror or suspense.

For a version of the review with gifs, check here.

Language: Some occasional uses of s---

Sexual Content: General description of a striptease

Violence: Plenty, some of it gruesome

Review: Titanic: Iceberg Ahead

Titanic — Iceberg Ahead: The Story of the Disaster by Some of Those Who Were There by James W Bancroft

Nonfiction — History
☆☆☆☆

When I first learned about the Titanic in 4th grade, it captured my attention. I became hooked on history. A few months later, the wreck was discovered. Then I ordered a book (Discovering the Titanic) from a Scholastic book order, which I still have. I pored over this book over and over and over, eventually finding more books to supplement my addiction. (I did not like the 1997 movie.) My interest was piqued by this new book, but was there really anything new to learn about the Titanic?

Yes! I was pleasantly surprised. The first half of the book is a timeline of the disaster, pieced together through multiple witness accounts. Quite a few of these accounts I had never seen before. It started with the ship’s construction and concluded with the Carpathia rescue and initial reports. It really brought the disaster to life.

The second half provides a brief biography of many of the passengers (some survivors, some victims). This included parents’ names and birth dates and places—information less interesting to read through. Some people had really interesting lives that would make good biographies on their own.

Overall, it’s a nice addition to the collective history of the Titanic.

I received a free e-copy from NetGalley.

Review: Local Woman Missing

 

Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica

☆☆☆☆

Fiction — Mystery

A woman goes missing. Several weeks later, another woman goes missing, along with her 6-year-old daughter. They lived only a few miles from the first woman. Eleven years later, the daughter shows up, having escaped a childhood in captivity.

WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED? This question kept me up late every single night for the last week or so.

I was so focused on what happened that I didn’t even bother trying to figure out who. The pool of suspects is quite small if limited to just the characters you know well.

There are several main POVs: 

– Meredith, the missing mother, starting about six weeks before her disappearance (ultimately reaching that fateful day at the climax).

– Kate, a neighbor, who joins the search for Meredith and her daughter (Delilah) when she’s first noticed missing.

– Leo, Delilah’s brother, in the present. This is mostly second person as he addresses Delilah and tries to understand her with her psychological scars.

The narrative is so tantalizing as it gets closer and closer to explaining everything. But on the way it’s a story about people and what motivates them and how they deal with mistakes and make choices. It was very hard to put down. I did not guess the ending at all.

I wish there were more details on what Delilah went through. And I was really mad at Meredith for neglecting Leo for a job she didn’t really need.

I assume the text will go through a final proofing before publication. It had some weird formatting in my copy.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. It was the weirdest thing: They emailed me out of the blue and offered me the book. I wasn’t even a NetGalley member. I don’t know how they found me or why I was chosen. I was suspicious at first.

*   *   *

Language: Some moderate language

Sexual Content: Mostly implied; off-screen

Violence: Moderate amount of violence but not very graphic

Harm to Animals: None

Harm to Children: Kidnapping and abuse that is kept vague; bullying.

Other (Triggers): Drunken driving; a woman feels violated after a pap smear.

Review: Sister Sleuths

 

Sister Sleuths: Female Detectives in Britain by Nell Darby

☆☆☆☆

Nonfiction — History, Women’s History

This is a history of woman private investigators, primarily in England. There is not a lot of information out there, so this author painstakingly went through decades of census records and newspaper archives to piece together biographies of some of these women.

The book ended at 70 percent; the rest was all sources and notes!

In the 1880s, England passed a divorce act, which opened the door to not only become more independent but to support themselves as private investigators, known then as lady enquiry agents.

Any fan of history, women’s history, or British history should be fascinated with this. The writing has a very pleasing style with a focus on accuracy and staying disinterested. I just wish there was more information about individual cases out there.

I received an ARC from NetGalley.