Tag: Disturbing

Ghosts of Tomorrow ★★★☆½

~ Bookstooge ~ 29 Comments

ghostsoftomorrow (Custom)This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Ghosts of Tomorrow
Series: ———-
Author: Michael Fletcher
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 396
Format: Digital Edition

 

Synopsis:

Mark Lokner has scanned himself and gone online while the world thinks he is dead. Just to be safe, Lokner1.0 has copied the scan and put Lokner2.0 into a secure digital space.

88, the scan of a young girl, gains her freedom and begins manipulating the real world so she will never be in danger again. This brings her into direct confict with Lokner1.0 AND Lokner2.0.

Agent Griffin Dickinson, with the military scan of Abdul Giordano, a 17 year old marine who died, is on the track of a group who illegally scan children. Scanning is a one way ticket and the head and brain are pureed after the fact. When 2 operations in a row go disastrously wrong for Dickinson, he’s about to quit. Then he gets a tip from 88 that sets him on the trail of the Lokners as the source behind all the illegal scans and children farms.

With the help of Abdul and an assassin scan loyal to 88, Dickinson must confront Lokner while the world around him is falling apart. It doesn’t help that 88 has her own plans for humanity and 88 has no mercy.

The book ends 1000 years in the future with scans as the de facto life form.

 

My Thoughts:

From a purely entertainment factor, this book was pure awesomesauce. Child assassins in suped up killer robot bodies, digital minds going insane, epic battles where scans take over electronics, massive and humongous acts of devastation, this had it all in spades.

Fletcher doesn’t shy away from brutality. Whether in thought or action, I as the reader was not spared. From the horror of how children are kept as livestock to be harvested for their brains and sold into slavery to the idea of corporations “selling” the idea of scans as a way to cheat death, for a mere 20year term of servitude, with all the attending small print we as citizens of the 21st century know to fear.

There was no hope. Griffin, the human who wants to be a hero and save the world, ends up being broken and then the woman he loved, who is now a scan, plots to have him killed so he can be scan’ed and join her. How soul destroying is that? Then the end where 88 turns all Skynet was so telegraphed that it didn’t really come as a surprise.

I thought Fletcher did an excellent job of portraying just how something like “scans” would work out in our world. How it might be used, abused, misused, etc. It was very eye opening. However, it was all predicated on the fact that a human brain could be digitized. If you think something like that could actually happen, then this was a very scary dystopean prophecy. If you don’t, then it’s just another prediction about a future by someone who has lost hope themselves.

While I enjoyed my time spent on this, I have to admit, I didn’t have any desire to seek out other books by this guy. I don’t enjoy wallowing in hopelessness and despair. It also didn’t help that I’m convinced that to you have to have a mind, body and will to be alive and to be human. Remove one and the other two are just ingredients, not something viably alive.

I did have one confusing issue. Most of this takes place in 2046 but right near the end things jump to 3052 but it feels like it should be 2152. It didn’t come across as a jump of 1000 years but just a generation. I might have mis-read though, as I don’t pay attention to dates real well in books.

If I see another Fletcher book really praised AND it has super cool over like this one, then I might seek it out. But if not, I’m good with having read just this one. Fletcher’s worldview is just too depressing for me.

★★★☆½

bookstooge

 

 

Curse of the Wendigo (The Monstrumologist #2) ☆☆☆☆½ DNF’d@64%

~ Bookstooge ~ 19 Comments

curseofthewendigo (Custom)This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Curse of the Wendigo
Series: The Monstrumologist #2
Author: Rick Yancey
Rating: 0.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Horror
Pages: 464/DNF’d at 64%
Format: Digital Edition

 

Synopsis:

Will Henry and his master rescue a friend of the Monstrumologist’s at the man’s wife’s behest. Upon their return, they attend the annual Monstrumologist meeting in New York. The man is not better and the wife is an ex-fiance of the Monstrumologist.

I abandoned this at the 64% mark.

 

My Thoughts:

Warthrop the monstrumologist had a fiance who then married his best friend. The woman reveals that she is still in love with Warthrop and they commit adultery while the best friend lays dying in a hospital. Ouch, right?

Then there is this wonderful piece of narration about it from Will Henry:

‘Some would judge them. I do not.

If it was a sin, it was sanctified-

the trespass consecrated by the act itself.

He met himself in the purity of her eyes

and obtained absolution upon her altar.’

~Page 215

 

All I could think of was the verse from Isaiah:

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,

who put darkness for light and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Isaiah 5:20

What kind of messed up thinking is Yancey putting into his book? I want NO part of something so abhorrent. I DNF’d this book and I’m abandoning the series and I’m now going to avoid Yancey.

☆☆☆☆½

bookstooge

 

Donkey Butts!

~ Bookstooge ~ 24 Comments

Oh the things you find when browsing Amazon. I was looking through the Cyber Monday Week deals when this particular picture jumped out at me:

 

81v6opvlxzl-_sl1500_

 

What the phrack!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

 

When you click through to the product page, you see this picture:

81rxchdetvl-_sl1500_

Now, that is what you EXPECT to see on the teaser on Amazon’s front page. Not a gigantic blue donkey butt.

This will teach me to waste time browsing for stuff I don’t need when I could be reading!

 

bookstooge

The Monstrumologist (The Monstrumologist #1) ★★★★☆

~ Bookstooge ~ 19 Comments

monstrumologist (Custom)

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Librarything & Tumblr by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Monstrumologist
Series: The Monstrumologist #1
Author: Rick Yancey
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Horror
Pages: 452
Format: Digital Edition

 

Synopsis:

12 year old Will Henry has been taken in by Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, as both his parents died in a fire and Will’s father worked for Dr. Warthrop. This is his story, recorded from a series of journals written much later.

Dr. Warthrop is a monstrumologist and he makes it his life to study monsters. When a graverobber brings the corpse of a headless monster to Dr. Warthrop, events from the past begin to catch up with the present. Dr. Warthrop’s father was also a monstrumologist and it turns out he was trying to domesticate the anthropophagi and brought some to America. Now they have bred and attacked and killed a family in New Jerusalem.

Dr. Warthrop brings in a professional monster hunter, Dr. Kearns and they, along with Will Henry and some former soldiers from the town of New Jerusalem must seek out and kill the nest of anthropophagi. Led by a cunning matriarch, the anthropophagi won’t succumb easily. It doesn’t help that Kearns appears to be an immoral killer who lives for the thrill of it. Who will live and who will die? Nobody important to the continuation of the series dies, if that’s any comfort.

More importantly, are these journals true or is the old man claiming to be Will Henry just a nutcase who died alone and ungrieved?

 

My Thoughts:

Lovecraftian through and through. While not cosmic horror, it is horror meant to be beyond that of mortal ken. It is also written to mimic someone writing from the 1880’s’ish, so if you don’t like Dickens, you might have some issues with the style and pacing.

Horrific, brutal and harsh. Mentally, emotionally, physically.

Will Henry might be 12 years old, but this book is in no ways meant for a 12 year old. Blood, brain matter and gore. Warthrop is the worst sort of person, forgetting his own humanity and never recognizing it in others. He is the quintessential Mad Scientist and I hated him. Will is going to grow up with scars so deep that he’ll probably end up dying while doing his duties. Much like his father, who probably died due to Warthrop’s hidden experimentation.

It was really hard to read this book and enjoy it. Will is abused by Warthrop mentally and emotionally and pushed beyond his physical limits, not because Warthrop is out to hurt him,but because Warthrop is obsessed. This was a true Horror genre book to me.

It was well written and since I enjoy Lovecraft AND Dickens, the style didn’t bother me one bit. In some ways it reminded me of a version of Frankenstein, but with all the gore and violence noted. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but it just seemed very Frankenstein’ish to me.

I’ll continue the series on but I’ll be taking note of the tone of the series and adjust myself accordingly.

★★★★☆ 

bookstooge

 

The Store DNF@25% w/ Extreme Prejudice

~ Bookstooge ~ 9 Comments

06857bcfecd93be3a7f57510477dfd94 This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes. blogspot.wordpress.com by  Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission.

Title: The Store

Series: —–

Author: Bentley Little

Rating: 0.5 of 5 Stars

Genre: Horror

Pages: 436

Format: Kindle digital edition

 

Synopsis:

The Store is coming to smallville, Arizona. Bad things have happened at other Store’s across the country. Bad things have happened during the construction of the Store. Very Bad Things happen during the interview and initiation process to work at the Store.

And that is where I had to stop.

 

My Thoughts:

This book typifies Horror for me and why I don’t read it as a genre. I don’t have anything to say about the writing, or the story as a whole or anything else.

The 3 following happenings made me feel sick to my stomach and forced me to stop.

1) A sleazy young man is being interviewed to work at the Store. He’s taken to the video surveillance room and is shown the women’s dressing room, where he proceeds to watch the sister of the girl he’s sleeping with, try on new jeans. The manager tells him that sometimes the women aren’t wearing panties.

2) The aforementioned young woman applies to the Store. During her interview she is told that she’ll have to take a polygraph test, with only the manager in the room. He tells her to take her blouse and bra off so he can affix the electrodes to her body. She does. And the manager leers at her the whole time. Then she has to give a urine sample. In the office, in front of the manager. She does.

3) The young woman is hired. She comes early on her first shift and is taken down to the basement. She is told to strip down to her bra and panties and forced to run a gauntlet between other employees [most of whom she knows] who inflict physical and verbal damage on her. At the end, they all say they love her and she responds in kind.

Now, I don’t care if those instances are presented as wrong and bad, which they were. I don’t want to read about the degradation, humiliation, torture and complete helplessness of a young woman. I don’t want to invite the evil of that manager into my thoughts, and hence, into my house. That type of thing is sick and to use it for entertainment is sick as well.

 

I Don’t Want to Kill You (John Cleaver #3)

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99bdc85803a318a2ce70852e092b8468This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes. blogspot.wordpress.com by  Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission.

Title: I Don’t Want to Kill You

Series: John Cleaver

Author: Dan Wells

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Genre: Paranormal

Pages: 322

Format: Kindle digital edition

 

Synopsis:  SPOILERS

John Cleaver is doing A-OK. He’s getting semi-along with his mom, he’s going out with the hottest girl in school and the Demon Nobody is on her way to town. What more could a young psycho ask for?

Unfortunately for John, he’s not quite as smart as he thinks and when another serial killer shows up in town, he doesn’t know who is Nobody and who is just the “regular” killer. Can he afford to kill and maybe get it wrong or are the stakes too high? In the end, John’s selfish obsession, brain smarts and experience just aren’t enough and it takes his mom sacrificing herself to kill this new demon. And John and Brooke hook up as a new Demon Hunter Duo right at the end of the book.

 

My Thoughts:

Yeaaaahhhhh [said real slow and drawn out, not excitedly].

This book showcases the fact that John is still a teenager and as such thinks the world revolves around him and that only HE can do anything about anything. That thinking leads directly to his mother’s death. I hope it haunts him for the rest of his fictional life.

Beyond that, I don’t have much to say about the book. If you liked the previous 2 books, you’ll like this. If you didn’t like them, this certainly won’t change your mind.

I won’t be reading any more by Wells though. His sick fascination with serial killers might have a place in non-fiction, but to essentially “make it palatable” and present that interest to teens and young adults in that light is irresponsible. I ranted about Wells in my review of the previous book, so I all I have to say now is “Goodbye, you sick, sick man”.

Mr Monster (John Cleaver #2)

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515bfd6b438a56939d077aa5d553e1d1This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.com & Bookstooge’s Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission.

Title: Mr Monster

Series: John Cleaver

Author: Dan Wells

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Genre: Paranormal

Pages: 320

Format: Kindle digital edition

 

Synopsis:

John Cleaver can’t get over the fact that he killed. He’s not horrified, he’s fascinated and he wants MORE. He knows this though and is doing everything in his power to stop Mr Monster [his mental disconnect that is his inner psychopath] who wants to bathe in the blood of everyone he knows.

But when another serial killer shows up, following in the footsteps of the demon from the first book, John knows another demon has shown up. So it’s ok to unleash Mr Monster. But can John reconcile the fact that other people see him as a hero when he knows he’s unleashing Mr Monster?

 

My Thoughts:

This was just as disturbing as the first book. Wells has done his research and seems to revel in showing the struggle that John is going through in trying to control his killer instincts. I guess what bothers me the most is that John is shown as not having any choice, so far, in the matter. He fights against wanting to kill but it is presented as if it is a futile fight. I’m hoping the next book changes that.

Everyone has Choice. Not necessarily easy choices, or even one time choices, but they have Free Will.

The mind of a psychopath is a sick mind. Those interested in such minds are either trying to help heal those minds, or like this author in writing for profit about it, sick bastards themselves. As you can tell, I’m not a big fan of Dan Wells.

There were just enough touches of humor to keep this from being completely dark and horrible. I’ve got the 3rd book on my tbr list and I’ll read it, but after that, I’ll be avoiding anything, no matter the subject, by Wells. I don’t want to my mind contaminated by a mind like his.

I am Not a Serial Killer (John Cleaver #1)

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azure_6d021b9676048a9e5b4cc44ddb9b89cbThis review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge’s Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission.

 

 

 

 

Title: I am Not a Serial Killer

Series: John Cleaver

Author: Dan Wells

Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars

Genre: Paranormal

Pages: 272

Format: Kindle Digital Edition

 

 

Synopsis:

John Cleaver is a 15 year old boy with an obsession about serial killers. He is intelligent and convinced that because he shares X number of traits with the profile of a serial killer that he’ll become one.

Then a serial killer visits his town and begins a spree. John is fascinated while at the same time desiring to find, and stop, this killer. Can John be Dexter Jr and turn his weakness into strength?

 

My Thoughts:

This was disturbing, don’t think otherwise. While John might not have killed, he’s already convinced that he will and we get a first rate journey into his thought processes. His mind is a very unpleasant place.

Add in the fact that the serial killer turns out to be some kind of demon and this book was just a big bowl of disturbing covered in disturbing. Add in the fact that this is marketed and targeted to young adults and the disturbing level goes even higher.

The Night of the Swarm (The Chathrand Voyage #4) DNF@7%

~ Bookstooge ~ 3 Comments

23619b6d39aad8420a89395f4e4621d9This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge’s Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission.

 

 

 

Title: The Night of the Swarm

Series: The Chathrand Voyage

Author: Robert Redick

Rating: 1 of 5 Stars

Genre: SFF

Pages: DNF

Format: Kindle digital edition

 

My Thoughts:

I have not been a fan of this series but I did want to know how things ended.

However, at the 7% mark, Ott [a character who is a spy master and has helped set up the events for the whole series] takes down one of the few non-hateable characters, has his henchmen hold him down with a pillow over his face. Ott proceeds to slice up the other character with non-lethal but very painful cuts AND then proceeds to piss all over the guy, in front of the command structure [and everyone there] on the ship.

I don’t want that kind of filth in my entertainment.

Duainfey (Duainfey #1)

~ Bookstooge ~ Leave a comment

0b31be70d314226d547211f1dc9dc779This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge’s Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission.

Title: Duainfey

Series: Duainfey

Author: Sharon Lee & Steve Miller

Rating: 2.5 of 5 Battle Axes

Genre: SFF

Pages: 496

Format: Kindle

 

 

 

Synopsis:

Rebecca Beauvelley is a ruined woman.

In a moment of girlish folly, she allowed a high-flying young man to take her up in his phaeton, not realizing that he was drunk. When he dropped the ribbons, she recovered them, but could not avoid disaster. The young man was killed. Rebecca survived, crippled, and with a reputation in tatters.

Against all expectation, her father has found someone who will marry her. Rebecca’s life seems set, and she resigned to it. Then, Altimere of the Elder Fey enters her life—and everything changes.

 

My Thoughts:

The synopsis is straight from the book page and it describes how this book starts perfectly, hence why I used it.

This is a story of good people and bad people, of good fey and bad fey. Rebecca is one of the good people. Her soon to be husband is one of the bad people. Meripen is one of the good fey, caught and tortured by humans with his lover who sacrificed her life so that he could escape. Altimere is one of the bad fey, a high fey who will do whatever he wants to regain his High status.

Things start out pretty average with poor crippled girl being swept away by enchanting fey who promises to save her from a horrible future. Problem is, the future with the fey is even worse.

And that “even worse” is why I could only give 2 1/2 stars here. I loved the writing, the story, the “overall’ness” of this, but the domination of Rebecca by Altimere was not only magical, it was sexual as well. It was explicit enough that it went beyond the boundary of “part of the story”. Also, Altimere uses Rebecca as a sexual lure for other Fey to steal their powers and she is raped, singly and by group and once again it was graphic enough that it turned my stomach. There are other ways to describe what happens without being sexually explicit.

I have enjoyed Miller and Lee’s Liaden Universe books a lot and so was really looking forward to this. So to have the above dropped on me was unexpected, unwanted and disappointing. There were several times I wasn’t sure if I actually wanted to finish the story.

Thankfully, it wasn’t all rape all the time. It was still a good story. I really enjoyed Meripen’s story, a fey ranger. We come across him as he is awoken from healing sleep and slowly learn of his past while he must deal with the present. The present involves Fey and Human working together, something Meripen can’t really comprehend due to what happened so many years ago.

I will be reading the finale to this duology but it isn’t on my “must read” mental list and I won’t be moving it up the line to read right away. Overall, my feelings are so mixed between the bad and the good that I’m not even sure of this middle of the road rating.