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BOOK TOUR: A Great and Powerful Tyranny by Victoria Carbol
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BOOK TOUR: One Word, Six Letters by Adib Khorram
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NEW RELEASE BLITZ: Just So Many Places by Jessica Stilling (Excerpt & Giveaway)
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REVIEW: Darkness On The Horizon by Christopher Renna
Darkness On The Horizon – Christopher Renna
All Morgan Fischer wants is to graduate high school and escape small-town Colby, Pennsylvania. Since the death of his mother, childhood friends have become his tormentors, and his father has become an absent and neglectful alcoholic. When lack of food forces Morgan to earn money, he develops a friendship with the new residents in town, Ava and Jonathan. They give Morgan the loving attention and guidance he doesn’t receive at home. As their bond deepens, he learns the older siblings have a dark secret. And because of his love for them, it’s a secret he promises to keep.
During the summer, a series of murders have rattled the small town. The arrival of a mysterious stranger from Ava and Jonathan’s past threatens danger. When the threat becomes too great, Morgan must alter his plans for the future and confront his fears. Thrust into a world of deception and murder, can Morgan summon the courage to survive?
This is one of those books where it’s best to go in blind or know as little as possible. Darkness On The Horizon packs a lot of surprises!
It starts with Morgan’s daily thankless task of having to wake his alcoholic father up in time for work. He tries to look for a summer job because there’s hardly any food in the house. He was hired by Ava and Jonathan to work on their lawn. His meeting and bond with the Astor siblings became the comfort of his miserable life as he found people who love and nurture him. It was all cozy enough and then came the big twist which completely caught me off guard and kicked the book up a notch.
It seems Morgan can’t take a break. He became part of a secret world that made him the target of a power hungry killer. The murders were all gruesome and violent which appeals to the horror fan in me but a slight niggle at Ava and Jonathan not taking action much sooner though they were in the best position to do something. The big confrontation with the killer kept me at the edge of my seat and had the book ended with Morgan’s life-changing moment, I would have been satisfied.
The book took an even darker turn when Ava, Jonathan and Morgan went to England. So much darker that I think it warrants trigger warnings for abuse and attempted rape. And while I appreciate all these twists and turns, overall, their unveiling tend to be too abrupt, feels disjointed or forced. I also think the England part is more suitable for a sequel and needs to be expanded to fully flesh out the English characters and their motives as well as develop the world-building because I couldn’t quite understand Morgan’s value to DuPont. The young man seemed more trouble than he’s worth. The saving grace of this story arc was Morgan’s revenge against DuPont where he wrecked all out bloodshed and mayhem. Turns out our boy Morgan could be a total bad-ass when he wants to. All these fun stuff almost made up for the banality of the characters’ interactions.
I enjoyed the Colby arc and I also love the fact that Christopher Renna amped up the horror on the England arc. However, the latter needs more polish while the former can stand by itself. Overall, this is a interesting debut.
P.S.
Before The Sun Rises, the follow-up installment, will be released Summer 2019
Thank you to the author, Christopher Renna for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Rating:
3 Stars – not exactly setting my world on fire but I liked itSoundtrack: Darkshines
Artist: Muse
Album: Origin of Symmetry -
Trash the Movie
ohhh…can’t wait!!
Raphael, Gardo and Rat on the big screen
‘Trash: the movie’ is a closely guarded secret no longer. The team has now been assembled: Working Title with Peapie Films – Richard Curtis to write the screenplay, and Stephen Daldry to direct. Andy will be a consultant, but is quite clear about what that means.
‘I’m not involved. I’ve had several meetings and conversations with these gentlemen now, and I have to say the book couldn’t be in better hands – there’s a real intelligence and sensitivity coming through. Hardly surprising…
More on this here
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The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
It all starts with a school essay.
When twelve-year-old Gratuity (“Tip”) Tucci is assigned to write five pages on “The True Meaning of Smekday” for the National Time Capsule contest, she’s not sure where to begin. When her mom started telling everyone about the messages aliens were sending through a mole on the back of her neck? Maybe on Christmas Eve, when huge, bizarre spaceships descended on the Earth and the aliens – called Boov – abducted her mother? Or when the Boov declared Earth a colony, renamed it “Smekland” (in honor of glorious Captain Smek), and forced all Americans to relocate to Florida via rocketpod?
In any case, Gratuity’s story is much, much bigger than the assignment. It involves her unlikely friendship with a renegade Boov mechanic named J.Lo.; a futile journey south to find Gratuity’s mother at the Happy Mouse Kingdom; a cross-country road trip in a hovercar called Slushious; and an outrageous plan to save the Earth from yet another alien invasion.
Fully illustrated with “photos,” drawings, newspaper clippings, and comics sequences, this is a hilarious, perceptive, genre-bending novel by a remarkable new talent.
I gave this book a 4.5 out of 5. this was a book i picked up at random from a sale and bought because it has pictures. i’m alway wary about reading books with teenage girls (american ones particularly) as the main character because of the usual pitfalls (e.g girl said to be feisty but ends up being rescued anyway, sappy love angles, crass teen language passed on as witty). one thing I like about this is that I can forget that gratuity is a girl. I guess it helps that she is 11 and not 16. and she did end up saving the world herself. i am not that big of a fan of sci-fi and this being a book about alien invasion, I expected it to be really cheesy and campy and it is, but the tongue in cheek humor works because it the same stuff I cringe at in the sci-fi cliches that i always cringe at in the sci-fi stuff i come across with.
I like how Tip and JLo the Boov started from this uneasy truce between human and alien invader to a friendship that lasted a lifetime (which here lasted a 100 years). The quiet thoughts between all the running around, hiding and dodging alien guns in a levitating car where I always picture Tip looking up the sky were poignant in that simplistic childlike way that for me always cuts deeper than cloying words of so-called inspirational novels (major reason why i don’t read coelho, et al.). One such instance was when Tip started to realize that the Boov are also a people.
Invasion being the running theme here, there’s the white man stealing land from the indians. the boov stealing the planet from humans. the gorgs taking the planet from the boov. even within the boov, the water dweling boovs grabbed the land from the forgotten boovs, those who lived in the land after being exiled. Coming from a colonized country, this struck a chord. Invaders always refer to the action as “discovering”. Conquered people are always thought of as inferior and looked upon as savages. In a few simple word, the author Adam Rex sum it all up via JLo’s comic: “the forgotten are kindly asked to leave, because the forgotten are needed elsewhere”.
And most of all, I like that part about the cat. As Tip herself puts it, “And as far as pets go, a cat is a nice thing to have”. And as far as friends go, a Boov can be a nice thing to have.
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Paperbacks
Finished reading:
Just started reading:
*will post reviews soon
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hmp! hmp! hmp! taking waaay too long. this is one of the reasons why I read the HP series in 2008 and not before so i don’t have to wait.
