I Was a Teenage Slasher

 

I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

245 pp

“I Was a Teenage Slasher” is told via a letter from Tolly to his best high school friend Amber, not unlike other books by Stephen Graham Jones.  It seems that if the blood of a reanimated corpse bent on revenge mixes with your blood, it turns you into a “slasher” bent on vengeance.  This is what happens at popular kid  Deek’s party who also happens to be one of the kids who accidentally killed Justin Joss.  Tolly and his friend Amber (who are not popular) decide they are going to the party.  Unfortunately, the popular kids aren’t done picking on unpopular kids like Tolly and Justin.  Tolly gets raging drunk at the party because people keep giving him mixed drinks.  Once Tolly is incredibly drunk to the point of vomiting, the band kids decide to have some fun and strap Tolly to a lounge chair with their belts.  Then someone gives Tolly a drink with a few peanuts in it and force him to drink it.  Despite vomiting, Tolly has a bad reaction to the peanuts because he is violently allergic to nuts.  Fortunately one of the girls at the party who used to babysit for Tolly knows about his allergy and goes and gets his EpiPen.  Once Stace uses the EpiPen on Tolly, his condition improves, but then Justin Joss shows up at the party.  Several of the kids at the party were responsible for Justin’s death and he wants his revenge.  During the melee in which Justin kills several of the kids, two drops of “blood” from Justin drop onto Tolly.  When Tolly rubs his forehead to remove the blood, Justin’s “blood” gets into the cut on his forehead.  The book continues on with Tolly becoming a “slasher” killing the kids that had wronged him.

I really enjoyed this story.  It was different from the Jade Daniels books in that Tolly himself is not a “slasher” fan, although his friend Amber and her brother are.  The way that Tolly becomes a “slasher” is different from any other thing like this I have read.  It was an incredibly creative idea.  As a “slasher” fan from the 1980’s, I understood a lot of what Tolly and Amber were discussing and I think people who know the film genre will enjoy the storyline. I give this 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to Saga Press for allowing me to read the book in advance of publication.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here

 The Girls Are All So Nice Here by  Laurie Elizabeth Flynn 308 pages

Summary from Goodreads: A lot has changed in years since Ambrosia Wellington graduated from college, and she’s worked hard to create a new life for herself. But then an invitation to her ten-year reunion arrives in the mail, along with an anonymous note that reads, “We need to talk about what we did that night.”

It seems that the secrets of Ambrosia’s past—and the people she thought she’d left there—aren’t as buried as she believed. Amb can’t stop fixating on what she did or who she did it with: larger-than-life Sloane “Sully” Sullivan, Amb’s former best friend, who could make anyone do anything.

At the reunion, Amb and Sully receive increasingly menacing messages, and it becomes clear that they’re being pursued by someone who wants more than just the truth of what happened that first semester. This person wants revenge for what they did and the damage they caused—the extent of which Amb is only now fully understanding. And it was all because of the game they played to get a boy who belonged to someone else and the girl who paid the price.

Alternating between the reunion and Amb’s freshman year, The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a “chilling and twisty thriller” (Book Riot) about the brutal lengths girls can go to get what they think they’re owed, and what happens when the games we play in college become matters of life and death. 

And here's what I thought: I found Ambrosia to be annoying. I just want to get that out there right away. However, as annoying as I found her, I wanted to know what was going to happen to her. Maybe something really mean, which sounded like it would serve her right.  Yes, I'm awful - but I don't need to like a character to find them interesting enough to read a story.  Actually, I didn't like Ambrosia's friend Sully, either. And reading about their freshman year at college gave me flashbacks I didn't enjoy, either.  But I found the story interesting and because I was curious, kept reading to the end.

In a nutshell, this story is: Someone gets revenge on some mean girls. Finally. 

The Golden Cage

 The Golden Cage by Läckberg, Camilla   335 pages

Faye is 34 and a devoted wife and mother, leading a lavish life in Stockholm with her husband, Jack, a successful entrepreneur. However, everything unravels when she catches Jack in bed with his business partner, Ylva. Now, angry and humiliated and left financially destitute thanks to the pre-nup she signed (even though she was the mastermind behind Jack's company), Faye is determined to plan a comeuppance for Jack. Told in alternating current-day and flashbacks, this is a story about female ingenuity and determination, with a flavor of psychological suspense.

I have not read anything by this author before, but now will be delving into her back catalog because I enjoyed this book so much. I appreciated the character development and taut pacing of the story, as well as the darker elements of this story.  It's clear that Faye has a background steeped in trauma, but it's not clear whether or not she's psychologically sound. So, I liked that the story kept me a bit off balance.

Sweet Revenge

Sweet Revenge by Fern Michaels Book 188 pages

Sweet Revenge is the fifth book in the Sisterhood series. It is Isabelle's turn to get her revenge and right the wrongs done to her by her former employee, Rosemary. The sisters plan and plot a devious plan to vindicate Isabelle, all the while having to dodge two inexhaustible reporters.

I enjoyed this book as I do all the books in the series. As said in previous reviews the dialog is not the greatest, but the story is such that I can't put the book down. I enjoy how bold Michaels is with her writing, if there's something she wants in the story, it goes in. I feel like no punches were pulled. Perhaps it is her bold writing, with which I'm not 100% familiar, that makes me say what I say about the dialog. Be that as it may, there is still something quite amateurish about the writing style. As if the writer has promise when it comes to plot, but needs to find a voice that allows said plot to flow more easily. However, no matter the writing, this book was good and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

The Kept

The Kept by James Scott 357 Pages


Set in the late 19th century this book main character Elspeth Howell is coming home after many months of working as a midwife.  As she crests the hill she notices that the farm looks abandoned.  She finds that her family has been shot and the bodies are scattered throughout the house.   It later develops that one son, Caleb,  is still alive and he and his mother go on a trek to seek revenge against the 3 men who cut down their family.

As the book progresses we are filled into the back story of Elsbeth and her family and when the two settle into a town we meet a whole host of characters who all seem to have pasts they regret.

Wonderful descriptive writing the book will keep you hooked until the end.