Wednesday Reading Meme
What I Just Finished Reading: Only managed two books this week: Lark Ascending by Silas House and Monsters in Our Shadows by Edward J. Cembal. Reviews below.
I also had my first DNF of the year, Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra. I got 66 pages in before I gave up. I'd call it slow, ponderous, and pretentious.
What I'm Reading Right Now: I'm reading In Every Generation by Kendare Blake, a Buffy sequel that features Willow's daughter. It's YA and so far has captured the essense of the show pretty well.
What I'm Planning to Read Next: Next up will be The Three by Sarah Lotz, another Gridlock-picked book, and then probably Black Coral, the next book in the Underwater Investigator series, which was picked in my Finish What You Started group as the series I should focus on in January.
06. Lark Ascending by Silas House
A young man flees a newly-puritanical America for Ireland, said to be the last country accepting refugees.
Climate change, runaway fires, and the rise of Fundamentalists have changed the world. Lark is the sole survivor of a ship bound for Ireland, which is not the promised land he imagined. But his heart is lightened when he comes across Seamus, a beagle that was hidden and protected by his former owner when the remaining dogs around the world were slaughtered. The real troubles are only hinted at as the story really focuses on the love between man and dog and about the beauty of the land. Despite its grim underpinnings, this is about hope and loyalty.
Bonus: a few chapters are told from Seamus’ point of view, which I adored.
Dates Read: January 08 to 10, 2025
Page Count: 288
5 out of 5 stars
+ Around the Year in 52 Books 18 - set primarily in nature (06/52)
07. Monsters in Our Shadows by Edward J. Cembal
A lone man in the last town at the end of the world seeks a way to destroy the literal monsters that are attached to the townsfolk and eventually seek to devour their hosts.
The premise behind this is really interesting and it starts off strong. Anthem is an Exilist, responsible for getting the monsters and their prey from the town when the monsters reach the point where they will literally devour their hosts. There’s some interesting beats about how the townsfolk smile crazily all the time, all the more to pretend they don’t have their own monster lurking.
Things fall apart when Anthem leaves town on a mission. The motivations of the people he meets in the deadlands are never clear, there’s a lot of gruesomeness in a book that’s already pretty gruesome, the ending reveal doesn’t really make sense, and the whole thing falls apart without a strong foundation.
Dates Read: January 12 to 14, 2025
Page Count: 388
3 out of 5 stars
+ Around the Year in 52 Books 30 - a monster book (07/52)
.
I also had my first DNF of the year, Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra. I got 66 pages in before I gave up. I'd call it slow, ponderous, and pretentious.
What I'm Reading Right Now: I'm reading In Every Generation by Kendare Blake, a Buffy sequel that features Willow's daughter. It's YA and so far has captured the essense of the show pretty well.
What I'm Planning to Read Next: Next up will be The Three by Sarah Lotz, another Gridlock-picked book, and then probably Black Coral, the next book in the Underwater Investigator series, which was picked in my Finish What You Started group as the series I should focus on in January.
06. Lark Ascending by Silas House
A young man flees a newly-puritanical America for Ireland, said to be the last country accepting refugees.
Climate change, runaway fires, and the rise of Fundamentalists have changed the world. Lark is the sole survivor of a ship bound for Ireland, which is not the promised land he imagined. But his heart is lightened when he comes across Seamus, a beagle that was hidden and protected by his former owner when the remaining dogs around the world were slaughtered. The real troubles are only hinted at as the story really focuses on the love between man and dog and about the beauty of the land. Despite its grim underpinnings, this is about hope and loyalty.
Bonus: a few chapters are told from Seamus’ point of view, which I adored.
Dates Read: January 08 to 10, 2025
Page Count: 288
5 out of 5 stars
+ Around the Year in 52 Books 18 - set primarily in nature (06/52)
07. Monsters in Our Shadows by Edward J. Cembal
A lone man in the last town at the end of the world seeks a way to destroy the literal monsters that are attached to the townsfolk and eventually seek to devour their hosts.
The premise behind this is really interesting and it starts off strong. Anthem is an Exilist, responsible for getting the monsters and their prey from the town when the monsters reach the point where they will literally devour their hosts. There’s some interesting beats about how the townsfolk smile crazily all the time, all the more to pretend they don’t have their own monster lurking.
Things fall apart when Anthem leaves town on a mission. The motivations of the people he meets in the deadlands are never clear, there’s a lot of gruesomeness in a book that’s already pretty gruesome, the ending reveal doesn’t really make sense, and the whole thing falls apart without a strong foundation.
Dates Read: January 12 to 14, 2025
Page Count: 388
3 out of 5 stars
+ Around the Year in 52 Books 30 - a monster book (07/52)
.