lauriereadslohf's reviews
1518 reviews

 A historical tale with a gothic flair about a teen who decides to hunt down a werewolf 

War, death, and a surprisingly monstrous foe await in this gory little tale! Review later, when/if I ever get my damn act together over here!

 I’ve been on an amazing roll of exceptional reads. I don’t know what’s going on but I’m just happy that it’s happening.

The Bell Chime is unnerving from the very beginning and it’s getting all five of my stingy stars. Although I haven't been super grinchy with them in 2021! I’m starting to sound like a broken record and this is such a strange spot for grouchy me to be in!

A young novelist spots a strangely sinister missing persons poster tacked to the door inside of her apartment complex. The poster features her face but her face is twisted in a weird way! What the heck? And things, well, things only get weirder from here and I am not going to spoiler any of it for you.

The Bell Chime is crawl under your skin creepy and impressively disturbing and at one point incredibly gross and it will more than likely confuse you. It confused me and I was pretty sure it was going to break my brain by the time all was said and done but it’s also incredibly readable. And the way it all comes together in the end is exquisite! Perfect really. I don’t have a single complaint. Books like these are welcome to break my brain any day of the week. My highest recommendation. I think everyone should read it! Right. This. Minute! 

A quieter tale of science and horror and a young woman very unlike the rest whose work is her life. I figured out the reveal early on tho 😬

Review later

 

This novella is exceptional.  The author immediately throws you into her dark world all innocent and unaware. You won’t stay that way for long. It might take a moment to get your bearings but once you do it’s going to be very hard to do anything else but finish every word of this story.

I was going to write up the standard review with a little plot outline and all that but I’ve decided  don’t want to tell you anything about the plot because I went in completely blind and it shocked me. It horrified me with its cringy body horror and I think you all deserve that experience too! You’ll have to read it and discover it for yourself.

What I will say is that at its heart it’s about betrayal. Betrayal from those who should love you no matter what and those who you meet along the way who aren’t always who they pretend to be. It’s about a society so focused on appearance and putting on airs and receiving the best magic that they don’t stop to think about the true cost of any of it. It’s about what happens when people, hairy or no (these people are furry and have tails and I love the idea of them!), are so focused on having the best  “thing” that they overlook basic decency and can’t be bothered to think about the true cost.

There are some images here that won’t leave my brain and that’s a good thing because that means it moved me. This story is magical and dreamy and also filled with pain, physical and emotional, trauma and secrets and if you don’t quickly grow to care for Angora I’ll have to give you the side-eye forever!

I can’t recommend this story highly enough. When my paper copy arrives (I read the ebook)  I will hold it close forever and I don’t do that with too many books. It was SO freaking good and I know I don’t have the words to properly convey how much I loved this beautifully brutal morbid fairytale of a story so I’ll be here screaming at everyone to READ IT, READ IT NOW! instead.

 

It all starts with the search for a missing nudie painting . . . 

This was such a warm, sweet and gentle romance. There’s a little miscommunication and struggling of the feelings and getting over past hurts but nothing overly angsty and overly complicated. Thank the loard because I didn’t want any of those things when I picked this up after having just finished a grueling read. There’s a little mystery of the paintings which fizzles a bit but that didn’t bother me at all. This story was just right for me at this point in time.

 What’s there to say about this book that hasn’t already been said hundreds of times over by people far more eloquent than myself? I guess I can say that the thought of reading it scared me because when so many people promise a heart-crushing read my expectations sometimes ruin the experience for me. I was more worried about being let down than I was about any of the content I might find inside the book. And there’s some heavy stuff in this book. If you’re feeling low you might want to save this book for a day when you’re better equipped to get through it. Or keep a lighter book handy to read in-between chapters which is what I did because I don’t allow myself to sit with grief and suicide ideation for very long. It’s too easy to fall into a hole.

Anyhow, now that I’ve finished I can safely say that I was not let down by my high expectations. This story is a study in suffocating, all-consuming grief. It’s filled with desperation and crushing pain and you will have to sit in that pain from beginning to end. It’s about the lengths one woman will go to spend just another moment with her deceased son even if that moment is less than ideal, fleeting, and comes with a great cost attached. It’s emotionally grueling. I’m not even going to sugarcoat it, as if I ever do, haha. So get yourself ready to SUFFER as we have suffered before you!

I love the way these characters are written. They’re real and they’re flawed and can I also say how refreshing it is to read about men who aren’t dicks?! Men who are kind and loving and caring and sensitive and thoughtful and supportive. We need more of that in our books. Less dickery and more likeability, please. I’m so sick of men being villainous creatures so much of the time. I know some of them are born that way but not ALL of them!

Crossroads is a fantastic piece of bleak fiction with some intense moments of body horror, totally worthy of all five stars. When you’re finished you’ll be left feeling the pain of having salt thrown in all of your bits that have just been brutally sliced open by the story. I don’t want to say too much more and there really isn’t a point because it’ll spoil the book for you. Just read it, you know, if you want to. 

Lakewood is a disturbing tale of classism, racism, and desperation and those who take advantage of others because they can and for their own gain. It’s horrifying on so many levels and definitely worth reading.

Lena is a young woman grieving the loss of her grandmother when the story opens. Her grandma took care of them all but especially Lena’s mother who suffers from a brain malady. Now Lena and her mother are left alone with their grief and the mounting bills in the aftermath. It soon becomes overwhelming and when Lena receives a strange letter from The Lakewood Project offering her a huge stipend, lodging, and full medical coverage for her family in exchange for research studies into her mind, memory, personality, and perception, she’s more than a little curious as well as a bit skeptical because if it sounds too good to be true, well, you know the rest.

It feels like a scam. The interview makes her uncomfortable but ultimately she agrees to basically become part of an experiment and from there the most terrible things happen, as they will, and that’s all I’ll say about that.

Much of this book reads a little like a fever dream as Lena and her fellow test subjects are exposed to tests and drugs and various appalling and chilling things. Despite this, I never felt too off-kilter. Lena is doing her best to keep it all together and the situation is depressingly oppressive and sad and 100% believable. My only complaint, and it is a bit of a big one, is that this book is a super slow burn (this isn’t the complaint) and the last few pages throw SO much backstory and reveals at the reader that it’s a little mind-numbing. I wasn’t quite ready to be hit with all of that in such a brutal manner! I wish more time had been given to some of those reveals and that a few more questions had been answered with some clarity and in all honestly I would’ve liked to see it all unpacked a bit more slowly.

There’s a lot to think about in this book and it’s not a light and easy read but I think it’s worth your time if you know what you’re getting into before you begin. 

 

When Annie receives a disturbing voice mail from her brother she drops everything to make sure he’s ok. That “everything” happens to be a job for a mobster who doesn’t take kindly to her sudden disappearance. But that’s the least of her worries, really, because she soon discovers her brother got caught up with a demonic cult and she’s going to be taking a road trip with a grumpy demon! 

This novella was SO much fun. I mean, who wouldn’t want to take a road trip with a grouchy demon who likes to stop for fruity blended drinks?! It’s also dark and gritty and full of adventure and danger and all of those lovely horror things but it still manages to be amusing as hell. 

Annie is one tough protagonist. Her job was doing the slicing and the dicing and she has more scars than clean skin and is missing a finger or two and she seems to have no fear and I adored her. 

“You’re disgusting.”  

“I am!” Annie crowed.

 “I might be a dog, but I’m the dog that’s paid to bite.”

She’s also very devoted to her brother which adds an emotional level to this book that made it so special. Her tenacity and drive to get to the bottom of things make so much sense because she’s driven by her love for her brother. 

And I swear this is going down as my most favorite line of snark from any book ever written.

“I’m going on a road trip with the devil. We’re in Vegas right now, getting hitched.”

This was such a wild, violent adventure with a good heart beating at its center. I think it’ll be hard to resist falling in love with its perfectly imperfect strong main character.

 

This was a terrific tale of messy family dynamics, secrets, and vengeance. Go get it. Go read it! I don’t think you’ll regret it! My friends Jen (Book Den) and Tammy (Books, Bones & Buffy) both recommend it too and they have exquisite taste so don't take my word for it.

Benedict is a ghost hunter in a family famous for them but he feels like a fraud and a failure even though he’s successful because his talents aren’t quite up to snuff with the rest of his gifted family. But he deals with his failings in a very unique way but fears exposure if he spends too much time around his family and with an upcoming funeral, well, it’s going to be hard to avoid them.

To say too much is to spoil the fun of this book. Go in as blind as you can and know that the complicated and tangled and intense relationships are some of the best parts of this story and this is a story filled with all of the best parts. There’s a mystery, a strange family dynamic, a ton of terrible family secrets, and a sweet, loving friendship that begins to change as events take a turn.

“But there was something brewing between them, something gathering in her like a storm that had been there for years. He feared it would be a hurricane when it finally broke free.”

It’s violent and chilling and emotionally satisfying and I highly recommend reading this novella if you enjoy any of these things.