Tag: horror

4 Books For The Long Weekend and Beyond

4 Books For The Long Weekend and Beyond

by ajcwrites ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello! I work with some of the most impressive speed readers I’ve ever met. I wish I read at a faster rate so that I could make content more quickly, but alas, I tend to read at least 6 things at once, and (Can I be honest?) only finish half.

Anyways, I compiled this short list of books for you to read, because why not? You need something to do this weekend if you don’t like going outside and barbecuing. So, here are 4 books that I like in general and why:

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

You knew Miss Maas was going to make it on here, right? Yeah, you did. I should point out that you need to read the other books in the ACOTAR series before you get to this deliciously, finger licking good latest installment. As a writer that’s partial to writing fantasy, I aspire to weave an emotionally fraught story as good as this one.

Without spoiling too much, the book focuses on Nesta Archeron, the eldest sister of the Archeron women. Nesta is tested by her own abilities and by the mouth-watering Cassian, one of the strongest fae warriors seen in millennia. Cassian takes Nesta under his wing (and body, sorry, sorry) and teaches her what it means to be a Warrior.

Nesta is her own worst enemy, and you can expect to see plenty of self-sabotage, magic, and unwieldy tempers in this book. I cannot reiterate enough though, you gotta read the other books in the ACOTAR series. Honestly, I could use this entire blog post to try and convince you to read the ACOTAR series but we just don’t have the time.

Onward!

You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kaylnn Baron

Ooh, spooky scary! I love a good teen horror novel, especially a slasher. (I feel like the slasher isn’t as respected anymore. As a young millennial, I’m offended) I feel like this particular niche is becoming more and more popular lately with works like Out There Screaming and All These Sunken Souls.

The story takes place at what is essentially an overnight haunted house. Except the haunted house is a bunch of cabins on a presumably haunted lake. We follow the main character Charity, who has ascended to the coveted role of the Final Girl at Camp Mirror Lake. She’s been employed there for years and when she finally receives the promotion, she’s thrilled.

Until things start to go very, very, wrong.

Her boss is suddenly absent, her friends are acting strangely, their cell signal doesn’t work, and when her friends start disappearing? The opportunity of her teenage lifetime turns into a nightmare.

Filled with mystery and absolutely heart-pounding, I started thinking about this book today and got a small chill. I devoured this book in maybe 2 days, and it is an undeniable slam dunk for the author, Kalynn Baron. Baron doesn’t usually write horror but I am so glad she tried her hand at it.

Next!

The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang

This is one of my favorite mysteries and you could probably finish it in a weekend. It’s a mystery but we see the recurring themes of the impact of a narcissistic parent, loneliness, and not feeling good enough.

The story follows three Chinese American brothers: Dagou, Ming and James.

Dagou aspires to take over his Dad’s restaurant. Leo Chao is a boisterous, at times cruel man that wants to be seen as one of the Joneses in their small community in the fictional town of Haven, Wisconsin. Leo has tried to assimilate his Chinese family into this predominantly White community, but even after years of serving their neighbors some of the best Chinese food they’ll ever have and holding his own as a business man, the Chaos are still looked at as outsiders, and face prejudice daily.

Ming is the successful, wealthy son that made a life for himself outside of Haven, and tries his hardest not to look back until Leo’s death.

James is a young college student, scared of being alone and even more afraid of being a failure. James tries to navigate the pitfalls of first love while trying to keep his parents out of his affairs at college.

When Leo Chao is found frozen to death in the freezer of the Chao’s family restaurant, an investigation is launched into who might have locked him in there.

The public suspects who they think is the obvious choice: Dagou. Since Dagou has been a frequent target of Leo’s cruelty, and was most recently publicly embarrassed by him hours before his death, Dagou is put on trial and is effectively at the mercy of the small town residents that have never really seen him as one of their own. Meanwhile, James and Ming are on a mission to find out what really happened, while harboring small doubts themselves.

Even while they fight to prove Dagou’s innocence in court, the question still lingers- Did Dagou kill their father?

One more!

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

I’m not even completely done with this one, but I can tell you right now that is so damn good. The story is a queer romance set in the US in the 1950s.

My eyes have been glued to my screen as I read Nick and Andy’s story. Nick is an established reporter who is hiding his gayness from his family and his coworkers. After all, the 50s were not a great time for queer people. What I like is that while there are reminders of the progress we’ve made since this decade, Sebastian does such a good job of making you forget the perils of being a gay man in the 1950s and offers up a soul-warming, and at times heartbreaking romance between two men.

Andy is a certified mess. He is disorganized, he’s constantly losing his keys, and he feels that he will never be competent enough to live up to his father’s expectations and take on the role of running his father’s longstanding newspaper, The Chronicle. Nick works at the Chronicle and he is at first reluctant to spend any time with his boss’ son, but Andy is just too… helpless to ignore. While Andy isn’t good for much else, he does a fantastic job of melting the ice around Nick’s heart.

This is a cute, sweet story that I can’t wait to finish– you should finish it with me and tell me what you think in the comments!

And that is it, my dear people! Let me know what you’ve read, and if there’s anything else I should have mentioned on this to list to start on the long weekend.

I would normally tell you about where to get these books, but I honestly want you to visit your local library, whether digitally or in person, and pick up these books. Not judging if you’d prefer to dog ear your own copy from a brick and mortar book store though!

Stay weird~

I Don’t Know, a Ghost Maybe?

I Don’t Know, a Ghost Maybe?

by ajcwrites ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello! Welcome back to ajcreads. I’m back after a month or so, and going forward, I want to try and at least post biweekly for you guys. I’ve been busy writing my YA fantasy novel (more on that in a few weeks), and reading, and working my daytime job. Anywho, I can’t wait to tell you about Home Before Dark by Riley Sager.

If you read one of my previous posts, Creepy, Creaky Houses, you would know that I am a Sager Fangirl. Sager doesn’t miss, struggle, or falter. Home Before Dark is another slam dunk in Sager’s catalog. Did you know that Riley Sager is actually a pseudonym ? Well, now you do.

So, let’s get into it. Home Before Dark, is a heart pounding thriller that may or may not be a ghost story. I had plenty of fun guessing in between feeling my spine tingle from all of the spooky scary stuff going on in the book.

The story centers around Maggie Holt. She is the only daughter of infamous writer Ewan Holt, and Ewan has recently died due to an illness. Upon his deathbed, Ewan asks Maggie to never return to the subject of the book that made him so famous: Baneberry Hall. Maggie and her family fled Baneberry Hall, a massive estate, when she was five. Ewan wrote about the estate in his wildly successful book, House of Horrors.

The legacy of the book and the controversy surrounding the infamous house where several random and grisly deaths have occurred has followed Maggie her entire life. So much so that she can hardly get away from questions from a nosy receptionist at the lawyer’s office that tells her what Ewan left her in his will.

Ewan has left not only a sizeable amount of money for Maggie, but to her absolute shock, he’s left her Baneberry Hall. Maggie had assumed that her father sold it, but he’d kept it all these years. She ultimately goes back on her promise to not go back to Baneberry Hall due to a burning curiosity to visit the place that her parents fled from when she was so young, but to also fix it up and sell for a profit since she’s a designer.

When Maggie returns to Baneberry Hall, things are instantly sketchy. I mean, some of the stuff happening is an instant hell no for me (for real, like pack it up, turn around, no amount of money is worth this, send me my check) Ghostlike activity keeps happening in the house, people may or may not be breaking into the house to say they did for bragging rights, and Maggie is never too sure who she can trust while she investigates the past and tries to learn the true story of what happened 25 years ago at Baneberry Hall.

This novel was absolutely addictive. I listened to it on Audible and I read the physical book from my library (ahem, go to the library, go right now). This story is a spine chilling mystery that constantly begs the question, are ghosts real? Sager almost instantly drops you into Maggie’s body, and every emotion is so visceral and just fucking scary. So creepy, so good, so compulsively readable.

I would advise you to find out by picking up a copy of the book here or you can find a library in your city and borrow it from there. Beware, it might be difficult to get your hands on a copy of this title.

Have you read this one? Let me know in the comments! Are there any other books that you guys want me to read so that I can do the hard work of finding out if it’s good or not? If it is good, it will appear on the blog. I make a point to keep this a book recommendation blog and I only post about what I liked.

Keep it weird until next time (I know I will)

Creepy, Creaky Houses

Creepy, Creaky Houses

by ajcwrites ♥ 1 Comment

Hello and welcome back to ajcreads! I’ve been gone for a while, right? I was waiting to finish a book that truly energized me. I read all the time, but finishing books is not my strong suit during a certain time of year.

Anyways, let’s get to today’s book recommendation: Riley Sager’s The Only One Left.

Horror and thriller lovers will lose themselves in this eerie tale that reads like a ghost story, but really takes place in a topsy turvy 1980s setting that will leave you white knuckling the edge of your seat.

You will immediately fall for Kit, a caregiver accused of murdering her last patient and as a result she’s been ostracized by everyone in her oceanside town in Maine. Kit finds a potential kindred spirit in Lenora Hope, the septuagenarian she has been assigned to care for who has been accused of a triple homicide at her massive estate, Hope’s End, in 1929.

The question hanging over the book is: Did Lenora really kill her parents and sister? Will Kit untie the knots that make up this mystery and possibly see Lenora (now a disabled, paralyzed and mute stroke victim) brought to justice? With a cast of characters surrounding Lenora and Kit, all playing their own part in the mystery of that night when most of the Hope family was slain, it’s almost impossible to tell who’s really telling the truth. That is, until what is a satisfying and heart pounding end is delivered to the reader.

Riley Sager has no business writing something this good because now she has an obsessed Forever fan. You can expect to see her on this blog a few more times once I start reading her other novels.

It is skill like hers that as a fellow writer, I feel that I am way out of my league writing any kind of novel. Sager’s mind churns in a way that I can only dream of, and I hope to catch up someday.

You can read The Only One Left via Kindle or you can visit that beautiful brick (or cement) building we need to protect–the library. You can buy it here.

Merry Christmas to every single one of my readers. Be sure to leave a comment and like this post. And please be so kind as to subscribe for more book recommendations where I fangirl for about 500 words and fall into the depths of a book hangover. Sigh. I do this for you.

See you soon!