Review: Paradise Rot: A Novel, by Jenny Hval, 2018

Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Paradise Rot: A Novel, by Jenny Hval, 2018

Right off the bat, if bodily fluids, particularly urine, gross you out, this book isn't for you. The author is clearly obsessed with urine and intricately details activities involved in the act of pissing.

The story is a sexual self-discovery of a young Norwegian college girl, Jo, who is studying biology abroad in Britain. There she meets a girl, Carral, slightly older than her, who she becomes obsessed with. She shares an apartment in a converted brewery with Carral and starts a peculiar three-way affair with a studly male neighbor named Pym.

The writing is surreal and exquisitely detailed with the grotesque banalities of human existence: mold, decay, and urine. The prose evokes striking images, from rotting slimy apples to a man exposing himself on a train. 

I rate this book 4.75 out of 5 stars.

#MagicalRealism #LGBTliterature #LGBT

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Review: Yellow Jessamine, by Caitlin Starling, 2020

Yellow Jessamine by Caitlin Starling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Yellow Jessamine, by Caitlin Starling, 2020

Yellow Jessamine is a fantasy horror novella with sapphic undertones that started strong. The atmospheric details, creepy vibes, and strong plot teased for a fantastic ending but ended up venturing into the "left field."

I enjoyed this intense novella-- filled with fierce lesbians, poisonous herbal gardens, and a mysterious creepy sickness; it's a have-to-read book.

I rate this novella 4.25 out of 5 stars.

"Evelyn Perdanu is a shipping magnate, the only living survivor of her family. She walks the city veiled and hidden away from the eyes of those around her. Her country is slowly dying, rotting away like food left out to spoil. Arriving from her last voyage, she discovers that a plague has visited her city, which is traced back to her crew. They act erratically and slip into catatonia. She begins to investigate the plague as much for the city's sake and those in it as for her own company and family name. What she finds is complicated and horrific." -- from the book jacket

#YellowJessamine #CaitlinStarling #LGBTQ

 

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Review: Book Lovers by Emily Henry, 2022

Book Lovers by Emily Henry
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Book Lovers by Emily Henry, 2022

I trite retread of any one of Nora Ephron's rom-com novels turned movie starring Meg Ryan. Some may consider Book Lovers a fresh coat of makeup for all the tropes found here and updated for the times. It was a guilty read for me at first, but by the time I was halfway through and half invested in the characters, I was reading faster to get it over with and done.

In Book Lovers, Nora Stephens (I'm sure this is a nod to Nora Ephron) is an intelligent workaholic literary agent living in New York. Dragged into a monthlong trip to the picturesque small town in North Carolina by her younger sister (ulterior motives and all), Nora runs into her professional arch nemesis, Charlie. I don't think I have to say much else, but yes, Nora and Charlie get it on more than once, lurid details and all.

I rate this book 2 out of 5 stars.

#HateRead #RomCom #EmilyHenry #NotMegRyan #NotNoraEphron

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Review: Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca, 2021

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, by Eric LaRocca, 2021

Agnes and Zoe develop a relationship over the internet circa the 2000s. The story is told in a series of emails and chatroom messages. What starts as a wholesome exchange of negotiations for an antique apple peeler between two women becomes a story about obsession, loneliness, sadomasochism, control, and delicious body horror.

I was gripped from page one by this uniquely bizarre love story. Though at times I was giddy with the squeamishness I knew was coming, I still squealed with guilty pleasure as the author unfolded gory details. The level of absurdity was just right enough for me to stomach the depraved activities.

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

#ThingsHaveGottenWorseSinceWeLastSpoke #EricLaRocca #BizarroFiction #LGBTQIA #Horror #HorrorLit

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Review: Self Help by Ben H. Winters My rating: 3 of 5 stars Self Help by Ben Winters, 2022

Self Help by Ben H. Winters
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Self Help by Ben Winters, 2022

The story is a ridiculous crime-spree adventure with some laughs and fantastically narrated by Wil Wheaton and Ron Perlman. Jack Diller, the story's protagonist, is an actor trying to make ends meet with no luck until he stumbles upon a self-help audiobook. With the newfound guidance, Jack commits what he thinks are confidence-boosting acts but really are simply criminal.

Have you ever seen a shiny yummy donut that you know will taste good going in but will regret later? This audiobook is like that, glossy cover with recognizable actors calling out to anyone scrolling through. You justify clicking acquire to it by telling yourself the audiobook is short, almost like a small bite-size donut, and won't make much of a dent in your daily calorie limit and time. So greedily consume it only to find about 2/3rd of the way through that you are already regretting the decision. But hey, you are almost done, and nobody likes a quitter. So you finish the rest as fast as possible in one big swallow. Then as you think about what just happened, you wish you had spat out the last bite, better yet, not to have fallen for the glitzy cover with the promise of a good time. If only you didn't "Self Help" yourself......

I rate the narrators' performances 5 out of 5 stars.

I rate the story 2.5 out of 5 stars. I hate that I read/listened to this.

#SelfHelp #BenWinters #AudibleOriginal #HateRead #HateListened

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Review: Travel by Bullet (The Dispatcher #3), by John Scalzi, 2022

Travel by Bullet by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Travel by Bullet (The Dispatcher #3), by John Scalzi, 2022

Third in the Dispatcher series, Travel by Bullet is an Audible Original narrated by Zachary Quinto. The story seems to take place in our current timeline or very close to it, along with Teslas, Cryptos, and post-Covid pandemic (is that really over though???). 

Tony is our hero, a "dispatcher" in a hospital emergency room, and is unwillingly thrown into a web of shady schemes and plots involving billions of dollars, Cryptocurrencies, real estate scams, and murders-- or is it really murders?. Dispatchers have the job of essentially killing a person and sending them back in time earlier in the day. 

Short, fun, and entertaining. Mostly a detective-like mystery storyline with a touch of sci-fi for the plot device (more of a plot voucher, actually). A villain triangle (as opposed to a love triangle) was effectively used to move the story to a conclusion. A self-referencing (in a meta kind of way) MacGuffin was even thrown in for good measure. 

I've enjoyed very few Audible originals, and this is one of them. I'm such a fan of Scalzi, but I needed something new and different from his Interdepency space opera series, and this satiated my appetite.

I rate this audiobook 4 out of 5 stars.

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#JohnScalzi #TravelByBullet #DispatcherSeries

Review: The Rats by James Herbert, 1974

The Rats by James Herbert
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

During the 1970s, London became infested with rats that began to prey on the human population while Harris, our hero, raced against time to stop the vermins.

What a great start. Within a few pages, I was hooked by people with sordid lives getting ravenously eaten or mutilated by mutant rats. Ladies of the night and their Johns, unattended babies and their canine companions, lovers and their "young" object of affection-- no one is safe. The level of gruesome and gore was pretty tough to outdo at every rat-feasting event; when the author failed to amp it up, the scene came across as comical and camp. 

This horror classic is simple, direct, and full of action-packed graphic mutilations. The Rats may have had sharp "teeth of horror" at the time of its writing, but its edges have dulled as the novel aged.

I rate the book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

#TheRats #JamesHerbert #ClassicHorror #Horror #Fiction

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