Broken Monsters

Date Read: March 7

Author: Lauren Beukes

Genre: Horror

Rating: 4/5

While it starts out as a crime novel, Broken Monsters quickly shifts into the paranormal horror category. It could have used more exploration of what was happening, even if the events were intended to be mysterious, but overall the book achieved its goal of a creepy story.

People don’t want novelty – they want the reassurance of familiarity. No one wants to be challenged, no one wants to have their minds blown. There is an insatiable appetite for affirmation.

– Broken Monsters

The Institute

Date Read: March 7

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Thriller

Rating: 5/5

Children with paranormal abilities are disappearing from their beds in the middle of the night, and waking up in a facility called the Institute. When child genius Luke Ellis wakes up there, he knows that he will do anything to escape. Thrilling, and an exciting read from start to finish.

It was so simple, but it was a revelation: what you did for yourself was what gave you the power.

– The Institute

Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers

Date Read: March 5

Author: Sady Doyle

Genre: Nonfiction

Rating: 5/5

Sady Doyle examines the patriarchal fear of women by exploring characters from Dracula‘s Lucy Westenra to the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. She looks at women in three stages: daughters, wives, and mothers, and takes apart the assumptions that exist around a women in each role. I truly enjoyed reading this book, from the start to the end.

Female monstrosity inspires terror because it really can end the world – or our current version of it, anyway. But our world is not the only one, and in fact, the more time I spend with monsters, the more I think its destruction is overdue.

– Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers

Dracula

Date Read: March 4

Author: Bram Stoker

Genre: Horror

Rating: 5/5

I decided to read Dracula when I finished reading Dracul, and I was definitely not disappointed. It’s clear why this novel has become a classic.

How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams.

– Dracula

A River in Darkness

Date Read: February 28

Author: Masaji Ishikawa

Genre: Nonfiction

Rating: 5/5

Masaji Ishikawa was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a Korean father. When he was thirteen, his family moved to North Korea. In his memoir, translated from Japanese, Ishikawa tells the story of his life and the thirty-six years he spent struggling to live in North Korea. The book is very well-written, and it would be impossible to read the book without being moved by Ishikawa’s life.

If you suffer long enough, it almost becomes funny, and you can find yourself laughing at the most miserable situations.

– A River in Darkness

The Song of Achilles

Date Read: February 25

Author: Madeline Miller

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 5/5

I have always loved Greek mythology, and I loved Madeline Miller’s retelling of the story of Achilles and Patroclus. Even though I knew how the story would end, I couldn’t help forgetting the ending as I became invested in the characters and their stories.

And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.

– The Song of Achilles
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