In the second Adventure Zone graphic novel (adapted from the McElroy family’s wildly popular D&D podcast), we rejoin hero-adjacent sort-of-comrades-in-arms Taako, Magnus, and Merle on a wild careen through a D&D railroad murder mystery. This installment has a little of everything: a genius child detective, an axe-wielding professional wrestler, a surly wizard, cursed magical artifacts, and a pair of meat monsters.
You know, the usual things you find on a train.
Hot on the heels of “The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins”, the smash hit graphic novel that launched the series, “Murder on the Rockport Limited” picks up the saga where volume 1 left off. Both books are based on “The Adventure Zone,” a tabletop RPG comedy podcast with downloads numbering in the tens of millions and an army of passionately devoted fans. With art and co-adaptation from Carey Pietsch, the McElroys are once again turning their raucous freewheeling D&D campaign into some damn fine comics.
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Another stellar adaptation of my favorite podcast! I’m so glad that the McElroys got to continue these graphic novels because as they pull away from the actual copywrited DnD content and go into Griffin’s original arcs that there is going to be so much more room to play! This one lent itself so well to the comic format, and it was so nice to see all of these iconic characters that I’ve only ever been able to form in my head!
I love how easily they were able to slip DM Griffin in, and how they used Railsplitter, the Extreme Teen Bible, and the Umbrastaff to showcase who was speaking out of Magnus, Merle, and Taako (respectively) if we weren’t looking directly at them. Angus was everything I needed him to be and more, and I loved seeing more of Lucretia. There was a moment with just her with no dialogue that took my breath away, because it was something that couldn’t be included in an audio medium but worked so well for the moment it was in and will hit so hard for devoted listeners of the show as a whole.
I cannot wait for Petals to the Metal to come out, as it is probably my second favorite arc, and the subject matter will be even more exciting than this one was to see actually play out on the page! I think the McElroys and Carey are doing such a wonderful job staying true to the podcast but also breathing new life into it for lovers of the show AND newbies to the Good Good Word of our McElBoys alike! I recommend this series and the show it’s based on to anyone who will listen to me.
When Lena’s younger sister Fressa is found dead, their whole Viking clan mourns—but it is Lena alone who never recovers. Fressa is the sister that should’ve lived, and Lena cannot rest until she knows exactly what killed Fressa and why—and how to bring her back. She strikes a dark deal with Hela, the Norse goddess of death, and begins a new double life to save her sister.
But as Lena gets closer to bringing Fressa back, she dredges up dangerous discoveries about her own family, and finds herself in the middle of a devastating plan to spur Ragnarök –a deadly chain of events leading to total world destruction.
Still, with her sister’s life in the balance, Lena is willing to risk it all. She’s willing to kill. How far will she go before the darkness consumes her?
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Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC of this book filled to the brim with lore and heart! I love a novel that takes mythology and makes it their own, and that’s exactly what Elizabeth has done here. We see familiar faces like Hela and hear names we know by heart like Loki and Odin, but it’s in a way you’ve never seen them before.
We follow Lena, the daughter of a chief of a Viking settlement. They are awaiting her father’s return from a raid to ask his permission for her sister, Fressa, to marry the boy she loves, Amal. When he does return, he comes bearing gifts and hands a sword to Fressa, the village’s strongest fighter. It lights up with runes in her hands but the strangeness of the weapon is forgotten as their father reveals that Amal has been promised to Lena from childhood since she is the elder sibling and will be chieftess someday.
At this news, Fressa runs off, only to be discovered by Lena minutes later on the floor of the forest, dead. Thus begins Lena’s journey into Helheim, where she strikes a deal with Hela to bring her sister back if she can find a soul equal to that of what she has lost. Lena loses herself in the drive to get her sister back, and ends up with blood on her hands, but no one she encounters is good enough for the goddess. Time behind to run out as the signs of Ragnarok draw near, and Lena finds out things about her village that stop her in her tracks.
It’s such a lovely story of sisterhood and love, and I especially like how the women in this novel are portrayed as strong, cunning, and a valuable part of this society. Fressa’s loss is deeply felt throughout the community, and seeing Amal trying to grieve his lost love while preparing to marry her own sister is absolutely devastating. The ending here made me audibly gasp, and I really hope there’s a sequel in the works! I recommend this to fans of myths and thrillers alike!
This moving debut novel in verse about a teenage girl dealing with the aftermath of an accident that nearly takes her brother’s life is a stunning exploration of grief and the power of forgiveness.
The reminder is always there—a dent on the right side of Jonah’s forehead. The spot you’d press when you felt a headache coming on. The bullet tore away bone, the way dynamite blasts rock—leaving a soft crater.
Life changes forever for Liv when her older brother, Jonah, accidentally shoots himself with his best friend Clay’s father’s gun. Now Jonah needs round-the-clock care just to stay alive, and Liv seems to be the only person who can see that her brother is still there inside his broken body.
With Liv’s mom suing Clay’s family, there are divisions in the community that Liv knows she’s not supposed to cross. But Clay is her friend, too, and she refuses to turn away from him—just like she refuses to give up on Jonah.
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Thank you so much to Edelwiess for this ARC! I think I’ve mentioned this in a review before but it couldn’t hurt repeating; I absolutely love novels written in verse. There’s just something about the medium that feels so incredibly personal and emotional, and I find it so direct and to the point because you don’t have to wade through a lot of extra words to get to the heart of the thing. That’s all this novel is; heart. We see the world through Liv’s eyes as she attempts to adjust to life after the accident.
Liv’s brother, Jonah, was a daredevil. Never once did he consider his own mortality; instead he lived each moment to the fullest and pulled his best friend, Clay, along for the ride. This lead to tragedy as the two boys discovered a gun in Clay’s attic, and Jonah picked it up for a laugh. Not believing Clay’s dad would leave a loaded firearm where anyone could grab it, Jonah brought it to his own head with a smile and pulled the trigger. The rest happens in a blur. Jonah lives, but has irreparable brain damage, and has caused a rift between the two families. Liv’s mother sues Clay’s father, and battle lines are drawn.
Liv is torn. Clay is her friend too, and she can see how much their family is suffering. She is also by her brother’s side almost 24/7, caring for him more than their own mother. She strikes up a friendship with Jonah’s nurses and doctors, and gives nicknames to all the various machines working hard to keep him alive. She’s there to hear him speak her name and to feel the warmth of life still radiating from who her brother has become. She is his protector and advocate, and as such, the rest of her life, like school and friends, start to fall to the wayside.
This book handles grief in such a beautiful way, and shows the importance of a healthy support system. I can’t say that I’ve experienced anything close to this kind of tragedy, so I can only imagine how alone and angry someone must feel. Liv is such a strong individual, and she wears the mask of Normal very well, but when she is found out, the people in her life rally around her to make sure she remembers that she is alive and has permission to be happy. I also love how this experience teaches her so much about herself. As she cares for her brother a spark is ignited within her that tells her she might be meant to be a nurse or even a doctor.
Liv even bridges the gap between the warring families, and finds a grieving mother outside of her own household. She brings joy to everyone she can, not really saving any for herself. She finds love, and reconnects with her friends. She actually sees the person her mother is, removing the woman’s own mask that has obstructed her own pain from view. She is a stubborn and dedicated girl, and I love her so completely for knowing the struggles and faults of those around her and loving them anyway. Her heart is so big, and you can’t help but be swallowed up by it.
I loved hearing Liv’s story in her own, poetic words. Betty Culley did such an amazing job at creating her and the rest of these characters, and making us care about each one as Liv does. I applaud the message for the need for gun safety, which is something that sorely needs to be discussed in the time that we live in now. I cried at multiple points throughout, and even though it was a very devastating novel, it was also full of hope. There are endings, but also new beginnings, and a whole slew of adventures in between. It’s a lovely debut, and I really hope she does more works in verse in the future.
Tiffy and Leon share a flat Tiffy and Leon share a bed Tiffy and Leon have never met…
Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.
But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window…
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I loved this book more than I ever thought I could! I read it for the July pick of the All Grown Up Book Club, and I hadn’t heard anything about it before then. I don’t really read a lot of romance or new adult, and the book club is really opening my horizons in beautiful ways. I am head over heels for this novel, and I’ll tell you a few reasons why.
The main characters were such a joy to read about. I actually read the audiobook, which is full of enchanting accents AND they make distinctions between phones calls and in person chats, which I thought was an amazing audio choice. It felt more engaging to listen to, and made things less confusing as you had to keep up with who was talking with whom, but it wasn’t ever a struggle. Tiffy is beautifully upbeat and quirky, and I love everything about her. She is damaged by her ex and fearfully trying to find her way in a world without him. When she finds the flatshare with Leon, it’s a dream come true. Speaking of my golden boy, I think Leon tops the list of fictional men right now for me. He is unlike any character I have ever read before. He is an introvert and has a way of leaving prepositions out when he speaks, so the cadence of his voice became comforting and felt like home. He is incredibly kind and understanding, and is just as broken as Tiffy is, but he is dealing with the fact that his brother is, he hopes, falsely imprisoned.
The two strike up a friendship despite never seeing each other. We see their bond grow through Post-Its and leftovers, and when they do meet, a knot of tension melted away from my chest in a huge FINALLY moment. There are so many little nuances in their relationship that make my heart soar, and they just get each other in a way that is unexpected because of how different they are. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that they fall for each other, and the way that their romance develops is just, for lack of better word, *chef’s kiss*. I was yelling back at the audiobook at times because I was just THAT into the story, and I will admit that even though we were supposed to stay on a schedule with our reading times cut up into sections, I got to a point at the end where I just couldn’t stop. The ending made me burst out into tears, and it has become one of my favorite reads of 2019.
I love how therapy-positive this novel is, and also what an amazing support system that Tiffy has. It deals with trauma in such a truthful way, and we are also given a love interest who understands this in Tiffy, and who asks for verbal consent before everything. Leon also gives her space to make her own decisions and to be who she is. He lifts her up instead of bringing her down, and in turn, Tiffy shares her huge heart with his brother, Richie, hearing his story, getting him help, and most of all, believing his story. It seems like such a little thing, but to Leon, it’s everything.
This book was funny, sad, romantic, stressful, and GREAT. I want to shout its praises from the rooftops. It has so many wonderful little references, like a nod to the Twilight series that had me ROLLING. Beth O’ Leary has a new fan in me, and I’m highly considering a re-read already. I’m not quite prepared to leave this world. Can I just stay in the flat awhile longer? I’m afraid I can’t get out of the paisley beanbag.
You are alone in the woods, seen only by the unblinking yellow moon. Your hands are empty. You are nearly naked.
And the wolf is angry.
Since her grandmother became her caretaker when she was four years old, Bisou Martel has lived a quiet life in a little house in Seattle. She’s kept mostly to herself. She’s been good. But then comes the night of homecoming, when she finds herself running for her life over roots and between trees, a fury of claws and teeth behind her. A wolf attacks. Bisou fights back. A new moon rises. And with it, questions. About the blood in Bisou’s past and on her hands as she stumbles home. About broken boys and vicious wolves. About girls lost in the woods—frightened, but not alone.
Elana K. Arnold, National Book Award finalist and author of the Printz Honor book Damsel, returns with a dark, engrossing, blood-drenched tale of the familiar threats to female power—and one girl’s journey to regain it.
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Thank you so much to Edelwiess for this eARC! I saw the cover and the title and was automatically drawn in, expecting a Red Riding Hood retelling. There are bits and pieces of that story here, but it is a beast all its own. What I found inside these pages was one of the most empowering stories I’ve had the pleasure to read, and it was so different than many things I’ve encountered as it was mostly told in second person. This alone made it unique and created a deeper connection with the story and its characters. The author means for you to find yourself in Bisou, and to know that her strength is your strength.
When we meet Bisou, she is with her boyfriend James. Things are quickly getting serious between the two of them– until she unexpectedly gets her period. Embarrassed, she runs into the woods and encounters a wolf. The two tussle but Bisou comes out the victor, and she promptly escapes to the confines of her grandmother’s house, who she has been living with since birth. The next day, she learns that one of her classmates was found dead in the same woods she had been in the night before, and after some investigating put together that what she thought was a wolf had been a boy.
I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone, so in that vein I’ll just say that with help from her grandmother, female classmates, and James and his friends, Bisou navigates her way through becoming a woman and what that means for her because of her family history. She learns that not all wolves are boys, but all boys are wolves in their own way. She is taught what a powerful tool her menses is, and that it’s not something to be ashamed of. I would recommend this book for any female reader who needs a bit of a boost, because it is a constant reminder of how women are able to rise up against whatever obstacles they find in their way; even wolves. While it does speak the truth on the danger some men hold towards women, it also speaks to the powerful allies that some men can be. Bisou’s boyfriend James has her back at all times, but does not overshadow her in any way. He allows her to be her own person.
This book also deals with tradition and family. Bisou’s grandmother is a stunning maternal force, and the absence of a male presence in their lives may be felt, but it is not missed. We are also given two strong female friends who accompany Bisou on her journey, each who have had their own run in with a wolf. There are so many stories that are told here. Ones that have heavy roots planted in our own reality. It’s comforting to see these words down on a page, knowing that so many women are having their stories told and have a chance to be heard. It is a triggering and difficult read at times, but it is incredibly raw and real and gives us a Red Riding Hood to look up to. She never needed the woodsman to save her because she WAS the woodsman.
Anyway, I loved the supernatural feel of this read but applaud how the story managed to keep its feet firmly on the ground. I think Elana chose the perfect perspective to write in because seeing ‘you’ splattered across the page kept me thinking, kept me chained to the narrative. Sometimes it’s easy to forget your own power, and to succumb to the forces around you, begging you to give up so they can drink you down like they’re quicksand. It takes little reminders like this to wake you up, and give you hope. If you’re looking for a little light in this dark world, Elana K. Arnold is ready to give it to you.
They came to earth—Pestilence, War, Famine, Death—four horsemen riding their screaming steeds, racing to the corners of the world. Four horsemen with the power to destroy all of humanity. They came to earth, and they came to end us all.
The day Jerusalem falls, Miriam Elmahdy knows her life is over. Houses are burning, the streets run red with blood, and a traitorous army is massacring every last resident. There is no surviving this, especially not once Miriam catches the eye of War himself. But when the massive and terrifying horseman corners Miriam, he calls her his wife, and instead of killing her, he takes her back to his camp.
Now Miriam faces a terrifying future, one where she watches her world burn town by town, and the one man responsible for it all is her seemingly indestructible “husband”. But there’s another side to him, one that’s gentle and loving and dead set on winning her over, and she might not be strong enough to resist.
However, if there’s one thing Miriam has learned, it’s that love and war cannot coexist. And so she must make the ultimate choice: surrender to War and watch humankind fall, or sacrifice everything and stop him.
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Thank you so much to Laura Thalassa for providing me with an ARC of this incredible sequel! I have been anticipating this release since November of last year, and it was well worth the wait. I had expected a continuation of the story of Pestilence; perhaps he had to leave Sara to combat his brother. I was however pleasantly surprised to see that this was a story all its own, with a battle-tested, courageous woman at its center.
It has been 13 years since the appearance of the first Horseman. Since he stopped his terrible plague from spreading across the world, his brother has taken his place. War is relentless, sweeping across the East with a mighty sword and an unquenchable blood lust. Miriam, our protagonist, has heard of his horrible deeds, but thought she was far removed from them. Her world had been shattered already; her family was taken from her in one way or another during the first Horseman’s reign. She has had to learn to adjust to this post-apocalyptic world of destruction and ruin.
Miriam has known death, and she has known murder. This new reality she lives in has made people return to their wild ways, and it is truly a kill or be killed society. She makes her own weapons and is a self-taught archer; a force to be reckoned with. That all changes when War and his army shows up in her town. She is unlucky enough to come face-to-face with the second Horseman, but instead of killing her, he starts spouting something in a dead language about her being his wife and God promising her to him, and so he takes her back to his camp.
What ensues is a battle of the greatest kind. Miriam wars with herself as the sees firsthand the towns that War brings to their knees, but because of her influence, she also sees his humanity that continues to grow every day. Hatred for this monster but love for the man underneath makes Miriam question everything, but she never loses sight of who she is. Despite War’s warnings, she continuously defies him to try and save people. She puts herself in harm’s way more than once, testing her new ‘husband’s’ patience.
I care for this pairing just as much as I did Sara and Pestilence. War is born out of the sins of men, and was made to judge the hearts of men and deal out justice as seen fit. His existence in itself is easy to hate, but War himself pulls at your heartstrings in a way I wouldn’t have thought possible. Miriam is his perfect match, headstrong and resilient. She will not break or bend, no matter how hard War pushes. She is a brilliant light of hope for humanity, and she falls into her dire situation with a fiery passion for using her closeness to the Horseman to her advantage.
I love this series, and I think Laura did a great job continuing it and peppering in mentions to the previous work as to quench fan questions about the future of Sara and Pestilence while allowing this novel to be something completely different. I’m living for the teaser for Famine, and I think he is going to be a harder nut to crack than his brothers, just from the little glimpse we get of him. These are most definitely my favorite romance books.
Golden boy Griffin Tomlin is found dead, floating in his pool, the morning after his family’s Labor Day party, and neighbor Emily Porterfield is arrested for his murder. No one knows why she killed him, except for her younger sister, Clara. The secrets behind What Happened That Night unravel in dual timelines:
In the present, Clara struggles with the aftermath of the murder―questions and distrust from her friends, denial from her parents, and visits to her sister in jail. And amidst all of that, another body is discovered that could be connected.
In flashback, the events that brought Clara, Griffin, and Emily together and that led to his death are revealed―events that involve a crush, an obsession, and a shocking twist.
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Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book! I was so hoping to read it, and I was previously denied on another site, so seeing it pop up on my Shelf was the highlight of my week. I finished it in one day because these are the kinds of stories I live for. Murder, mystery, and broken people putting themselves back together after tragedy strikes. There’s just something so beautiful in knowing that no matter what happens to you, no matter how an experience may mark you forever, that there is such strength lying dormant in humans as a species to overcome.
Clara is someone well acquainted with pain. When we join her story, she is living in the aftermath of her sister going to jail for killing their next door neighbor. That next door neighbor was Griffin, Clara’s childhood crush. She has cut off everyone who was close to her, including her best friend, Bex, and doesn’t even go to the jail to visit Emily. She quit theatre at her high school, started hiding behind baggy clothes and a tight lip, and tries her hardest to just fade into the background.
All that changes when she meets Aniston, a perky journalist for her school’s paper who is interested in her sister’s story. Reluctantly, she joins forces with her and Griffin’s best friend Kolby to uncover the mysteries of what really happened that night. I don’t want to go into very much more detail, because there are so many intricate twists and turns in this novel that I really would hate to spoil. It’s such an emotional and heavy book, and it brings to light so many real horrors in this world that do not get enough coverage. If you read it, you’ll see what I mean, and I really recommend you do.
I commend the author for starting this book with a preface that if you need to put the book down, you most definitely should. There are experiences in this book that may be hard for some readers, but I think it is a worthwhile and necessary read. It is raw, but not unfeeling, and many scenes left me with a huge ache in my chest at this absolute devastation that I could never understand in full. The switches between past and present were so powerful and crushing, seeing the changes that time and devastation can make.
Deanna does a wonderful job creating characters that you can fall head over heels for, and the best part of it is that none of them are perfect. They are perfect examples of real human beings, and those same kind that I mentioned before who have shattered but by the end of the novel are on their way to placing the puzzle pieces of their identities back in place. The book is harrowing but heartening, and I’m glad I had the chance to read it.
A supernatural thriller in the vein of A Head Full of Ghosts about two young girls, a scary story that becomes far too real, and the tragic–and terrifying–consequences that follow one of them into adulthood.
Red Lady, Red Lady, show us your face…
In 1991, Heather Cole and her friends were members of the Dead Girls Club. Obsessed with the macabre, the girls exchanged stories about serial killers and imaginary monsters, like the Red Lady, the spirit of a vengeful witch killed centuries before. Heather knew the stories were just that, until her best friend Becca began insisting the Red Lady was real–and she could prove it.
That belief got Becca killed.
It’s been nearly thirty years, but Heather has never told anyone what really happened that night–that Becca was right and the Red Lady was real. She’s done her best to put that fateful summer, Becca, and the Red Lady, behind her. Until a familiar necklace arrives in the mail, a necklace Heather hasn’t seen since the night Becca died.
The night Heather killed her.
Now, someone else knows what she did…and they’re determined to make Heather pay.
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Thank you so much to NetGalley for this ARC! It’s been a long time since I’ve read a horror novel that has stayed with me like this one has. In between reading, it occupied my thoughts when I let my mind wander and has plagued my dreams at night. I rushed home after work to continue the story, trying as hard as I could to finish it even though I never wanted it to end. It was all too easy to see myself and my friend group from when I was a kid as the Dead Girls Club, and maybe that’s why it effected me so, but either way, it was an expertly crafted scary story.
Heather is an adult who seems to be doing very well for herself. A good job working with kids, a happy marriage, stable friends her age– but there’s a secret she’s been harboring that lies just beneath her spotless veneer. She murdered her best friend when she was a kid and got away with it. No one else knows; Becca’s body was never found, and her mother, Lauren, was pinned with the crime. When Heather begins to personal items that belonged to Becca in the mail, she begins a steady decline into a sort of madness. This descent brings up long buried memories from her past, and chapters of Heather’s present are interwoven with scenes from her past.
In these scenes, we meet the Dead Girls Club. Heather, Becca, and their two friends, Gia and Rachel, bonded over a shared love of the macabre, and when they had their club meetings they would take turns telling stories. They were mostly stories about serial killers, local murder victims, or the supernatural, but one day, Becca sits them down in an abandoned house her mom is selling to tell them about the Red Lady. She was a witch who was horrifically murdered centuries ago, but who lives on to make deadly bargains with those who ask for her help. Once Becca starts telling her stories, things quickly make a turn for the worse. The girls all start having nightmares and phantom pains, and Becca withdraws from Heather, ending in a night that changed Heather’s life forever.
Heather’s anxiety and fear pushes everyone she loves away from her. She was suspicious of everything and I got to a point where I wasn’t sure if I should trust anything she said or saw, because she was truly one step away from losing it completely. I liked the unreliable narrator factor, and how we were given very plausible cause for every character we met to be who had finally found Heather out. Her life spins out of control, and I was left breathless trying to decide whether there really ever was a Red Lady, or if, like it goes so many times in life, the Dead Girls Club made up something to shield them from the glimpses of real life that they had come across far too young.
I really could go on and on about this book, but I’m trying not to reveal too much. It very well may be my favorite read of 2019, and it hasn’t even been published yet! I was hooked on this original tale, and could have never guessed the ending. I know that I’ll be thinking about this story for awhile now; maybe even seeing the Red Lady in my dreams for many nights to come. Thank you, Damien, for the haunting and intricately woven spider’s web that you’ve woven. I’m the fly, and I’ll never be free.
The Dry meets Silence of the Lambs in this intoxicating tale of literary suspense set in the relentless Alaskan landscape about madness and obsession, loneliness and grief, and the ferocious bonds of family …
It’s 1941 in small-town Alaska and Elisabeth Pfautz is alone. She’s living far from home, struggling through an unhappy marriage, and she spends her days tutoring her precocious young daughter. Elisabeth’s twin sister disappeared without a trace twenty years earlier, and Elisabeth’s life has never recovered. Cryptic visions of her sister haunt her dreams, and Elisabeth’s crushing loneliness grows more intense by the day. But through it all, she clings to one belief: That her sister is still alive, and that they’ll be reunited one day.
And that day may be coming soon. Elisabeth’s world is upended when Alfred Seidel — an enigmatic German bush pilot — arrives in town and murders a local man in cold blood. Sitting in his cell in the wake of his crime, Alfred refuses to speak to anyone except for Elisabeth. He has something to tell her: He knows exactly what happened to her long-missing sister, but he’ll reveal this truth only if Elisabeth fulfills three requests.
Increasingly isolated from her neighbors and imprisoned by the bitter cold and her own obsession, Elisabeth lets herself slip deeper into Alfred’s web. A tenuous friendship forms between them, even as Elisabeth struggles to understand Alfred’s game and what he’s after.
But if it means she’ll get answers, she’s willing to play by his rules. She’s ready to sacrifice whatever it takes to be reunited with her sister, even if it means putting herself — and her family — in mortal danger.
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Many thanks to Penguin Random House and Berkley Publishing for this ARC that I won through Publisher’s Weekly! I love a good thriller, and this one delivers not only that incredible tension that I crave, but a mystery so dark that it really does take connecting clue after clue until the very end where the truth hits you like a bomb. When you strip down those elements, it is a compelling tale of the hardships women face, with or without tragedy, and the difficulty of not losing sight of who you are after marriage, children, and the death of your wildest dreams.
We meet Elisabeth in 1941, living in a very small Alaskan town. She is a German immigrant who has been touched by pain all of her life, but has risen above this to start a new life with her husband, John, and her daughter, Margaret. Despite fleeting moments of happiness, she feels unfulfilled, and is haunted by the memory of her younger sister who went missing when they were eleven. They lived in Pennsylvania then, and the timeline switches effortlessly from Else’s present day to her distressing past. She patched up the hole in her heart as best she could, but the stitches are ripped wide open once she meets a substitute postman by the name of Alfred.
Alfred runs into some issues with his plane and asks to stay with Elisabeth. She feels obligated to comply, and things quickly go downhill. Her best friend in the town is shortly thereafter murdered by this stranger, and in the wake of his arrest, he asks to speak to Elisabeth. She complies, only to get closure with her friend’s death as she was not afforded that luxury with her sister. The unthinkable happens as Alfred claims to know exactly what happened to her sister, and that he can lead her to Jacqueline if she will agree to his demands. Thus begins a long and terrifying game of cat and mouse as Elisabeth risks everything she knows and loves for the hope of being reunited with her other half; her twin.
The glimpses of the past show us Elisabeth’s childhood, and the headstrong girl that was her twin sister. They made plans to leave their poverty-stricken hometown for a big city, never to look back. Elisabeth thought it was all in great fun, playing along with her best friend in the world, but didn’t ever consider a day where it would come true. They were all her father had, as their mother had been taken by cancer when they were much younger. Then Jacky met someone who promised to help them succeed with The Plan, and then she went missing.
Thoughts that she could have told someone or done something to stop it filled her mind, and Jacqueline plagued her dreams. Her heart turned to ice on the spot, and it is only when presented with Alfred’s game that she begins to feel herself thaw, and though she is finding herself again, she is losing touch with her husband, and her daughter is shifting into someone she no longer recognizes. It’s thrilling to watch her try to put out fires on every side of her, wondering when she will catch flame as well.
All this to say, I was hooked from the first sentence, and finished in such a flurry that the title made me laugh, because the book itself quickly disappeared as I devoured it, page by page. The way the novel comes to a close could lend itself to a sequel, but it also works as a very sobering ending for a standalone. Either way, I really look forward to more from this author, and it is such an honor to know I was one of the first to read his debut!
They came to earth—Pestilence, War, Famine, Death—four horsemen riding their screaming steeds, racing to the corners of the world. Four horsemen with the power to destroy all of humanity. They came to earth, and they came to end us all.
When Pestilence comes for Sara Burn’s town, one thing is certain: everyone she knows and loves is marked for death. Unless, of course, the angelic-looking horseman is stopped, which is exactly what Sara has in mind when she shoots the unholy beast off his steed.
Too bad no one told her Pestilence can’t be killed.
Now the horseman, very much alive and very pissed off, has taken her prisoner, and he’s eager to make her suffer. Only, the longer she’s with him, the more uncertain she is about his true feelings towards her … and hers towards him.
And now, well, Sara might still be able to save the world, but in order to do so, she’ll have to sacrifice her heart in the process.
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I had no idea I could love one of the four horsemen so much, and especially not one that brings disease to the world. Well, okay, maybe that last part is a little more believable because I have a overwhelming fascination with the Black Death, BUT it is still a testament to Laura’s writing that I fell so head over heels for this being that begins the destruction of the world as we know it.
We are thrown into Sara’s world, which has been preparing for the apocalypse. Pestilence is riding around the world, and it’s her town’s turn next. She and her coworkers draw straws to see who will attempt to take down the horseman, and Sara draws poorly. She attempts the task, thinks she succeeds, and is promptly captured by him once he recovers.
What unfolds is a true enemies to lovers story, and one that is filled with so much heart and heat. You care about stubborn, strong Sara and wish for her to be freed, but at a certain point your defenses start to melt with hers when you realize maybe Pestilence isn’t who you think he is. Instead of someone harming the world for fun, he is serving a purpose, doing a job that he cannot run from.
I fell hard for Pestilence, and I really enjoyed the path that this story took. I finished it in a day because I literally COULD NOT put it down. I’m on pins and needles waiting for the sequel, War, and to see where our doomed couple can go from here.
UnabridgedBren 