Virtual Mount TBR Challenge 2022 discussion

Today's post is on Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls by Kathleen Hale. It is 348 pages long and is published by Grove Press. The cover is a picture of a suburban neighborhood. The intended reader is someone who is interested in modern true crime and mental health. There is some mild foul language, no sex, and violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- On May 31, 2014, in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, Wisconsin, two twelve-year-old girls attempted to stab their classmate to death. Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier's violence was extreme, but what seems even more frightening was that they committed their crime under the influence of a figure born by the internet" the so-called "Slenderman". Yet the even more urgent aspect of the story, that the children involved suffered from undiagnosed mental illnesses, often went overlooked in coverage of the case.
Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls tells that full story for the first time in deeply researched detail, using court transcripts, police reports, individual reporting, and exclusive interviews. Morgan and Anissa were bound together by their shared loved of geeky television shows and animals, and their discovery of the user-uploaded scary stories on the Creepypasta website could have been nothing more than a brief phase. But Morgan was suffering from early-onset childhood schizophrenia. She believed that she had seen Slenderman long before discovering him online, and the way to stop home from killing her family was to bring him a sacrifice: Morgan's best friend, Payton "Bella" Leutner, whom she and Anissa planned to stab to death on the night of Morgan's twelfth birthday party. Bella survived the attack, but was deeply traumatized, while Morgan and Anissa were immediately sent to jail, and the severity of their crime meant that they would be prosecuted as adults. There, as Morgan continued to suffer from worsening mental illness after being denied antipsychotics, her life became more and more surreal.

Review- This is a very sad story for all the parties involved. Hale starts with the girls parents, their home lives, their friends, and everything else to try and get the best look at the crime from all sides. Hale is interested the most in Morgan and her inner life. When with the focus on Morgan, the horror of what happens to Payton is not lessened. But Hale wants the reader to think about the state of mental illness and how it is treated or untreated in America. Morgan was not seen as sick until too late, the lust for revenge was stronger than the search for truth or justice, and there are no winners in this story. Everyone loses in this story but maybe with greater knowledge about laws, mental illness, and where they collide more can be done to help more children like Morgan and protect more children like Payton.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

61 down and 14 more to go!

Today's post is on She Walks in Shadows by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Editor). It is 303 pages long and is published by Innsmouth Free Press. The cover has a woman with white eyes, looking up holding a bowl with tentacles coming out. The intended reader is someone who likes Lovecraft, horror stories, and creating new mythos in Lovecraft lore. There is foul language, sex and sexuality, and some violence in these stories. The stories are all told in different ways as this is anthology book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- They emerge from the shadows, to claim the night...
Women from around the world delve into Lovecraftian depths, penning and illustrating a variety of Weird horrors. The pale and secretive Lavinia wanders through the woods, Asenath is a precocious teenager with an attitude, and the Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Nitocris has found a new body in distant America. And do you have time to hear a word from out beloved mother Shub-Niggurath?
Defiant, destructive, terrifying, and harrowing, the women in She Walks in Shadows are monster and mothers, heroes and devourers. Observe them in all their glory, Ia! Ia!
Review- This is a very good collection of short stories inspired by the stories of H.P Lovecraft. There is a little bit of everything in this collection. From addressing very important characters in Lovecraft lore, to new characters falling into nightmares beyond human comprehension. One of the strong elements of this collection, is the different writing styles from the different authors. Everything from scientific journal of a scholar being over taken from within to the conception a Lovecraft monster. The stories are also short, so that the reader gets to the horror quickly. If you are not enjoying a story, just move on to the next one, you will have completing different style, tone, and narrative. If you are a fan of Lovecraft and something new in his world, then you should give this collection a try.

I give this collection a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

62 down and 13 more to go!

Today's post is on The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh. It is 321 pages long and is published by Feiwel and Friends. The cover is a beautiful illustration of a girl in traditional Korean clothes with her skirt turning into the sea. The intended reader is someone who likes fairy tales and Asian folklore. There is no foul language, no sex, and mild violence in this novel. The story is told from first person close of the main character, Mina. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- Deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland for generations. Floods sweep away entire villages, while bloody wars are waged over the few remaining resources. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curses them with death and despair. In an attempt to appease him, each year a beautiful maiden is thrown into the sea to serve as the Sea God’s bride, in the hopes that one day the “true bride” will be chosen and end the suffering.
Many believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea, even knowing that to interfere is a death sentence. To save her brother, Mina throws herself into the water in Cheong’s stead.
Swept away to the Spirit Realm, a magical city of lesser gods and mythical beasts, Mina seeks out the Sea God, only to find him caught in an enchanted sleep. With the help of a mysterious young man named Shin—as well as a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits—Mina sets out to wake the Sea God and bring an end to the killer storms once and for all.
But she doesn’t have much time: A human cannot live long in the land of the spirits. And there are those who would do anything to keep the Sea God from waking…

Review- Mina living in a village by the sea and every year the most brilliant girl in the kingdom will be sacrificed to try and appease the Sea God. But this year's bride is the beloved of her older brother and Mina will not let him be heart broken, so she makes a vow to the Sea God and she is taken instead. In the realm of the spirits, Mina learns that the Sea God has been asleep for one hundred years and the balance of power is in danger of changing, which would be horrible for the human realm. So Mina has a quest, to save the Sea God and maybe herself too. I really enjoyed this novel, as lover of mythology from all over the world, I enjoyed reading a new novel about a water god's bride. The writing is excellent, the characters are interesting, and the love story is cute and moving. Oh is clearly very familiar with the legend and she gives it a wonderful new spin. This is a very fun novel and if you have never read any Korean folklore, then I strongly recommend starting with this novel.

I give this novel a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this novel from my local library.

63 down and 12 more to go!

Today's nonfiction post is on When the Moon Turns to Blood: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and a Story of Murder, Wild Faith, and End Times by Leah Sottile. It is 320 pages long and is published by Twelve. The cover is the mug shots of Vallow and Daybell. The intended reader is someone who is interested in true crime and religious extremist. There is some mild foul language, discussion of sex and sexuality, and violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the audiobook- When police in Rexburg, Idaho perform a wellness check on seven J.J. Vallow and his sister, sixteen-year-old Tylee Ryan both children are nowhere to be found. Their mother, Lori, gives a phony explanation, and when officers return the following day with a search warrant, she, too, is gone. As the police begin to close in, Vallow and Daybell's larger web begins to unravel.

Review- Sottile give the reader not only an examination of the crime but also what drove the killers to murder their children and others around them. Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell were raised in the Mormon faith and their faith fed into their mental illnesses that had tragic consequences. This book is about more than just end times fears and mental illness, it is also about a religious communities failure to understand what was happening in front of them. Vallow was known to be on the edge, to lie to make things work her way. Daybell said he heard from god directly and was given prophesy about the end of the world and the people who would survive it. Their believes led to the isolation and the murder of two children. The audiobook is read by the author and she does a good job. In her performance, you can hear her passion for this story and the murders. I would recommend this book, if you enjoy true crime.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this audiobook from my local library.

64 down and 11 more to go!

Today's nonfiction The Correspondents: Six Women Writers on the Front Lines of World War II by Judith Mackrell. It is 464 pages long and is published by Doubleday Books. The cover is a picture of a woman with a camera standing on car in uniform with a press armband. The intended reader is someone who is interested World War II history and women's history. There is some mild foul language, discussion of sex and sexuality, and discussion of war and violence. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- On the front lines of the Second World War, a contingent of female journalists were barred from combat zones and faced with entrenched prejudice and bureaucratic restrictions, forced to fight for the right to work on equal terms with men. The Correspondents follows six women: Martha Gellhorn, Lee Miller, Sigrid Schultz, Virginia Cowles, Clare Hollingworth, and Helen Kirkpatrick. From chasing down sources and dodging gunfire to conducting love affairs, and socializing with luminaries like Eleanor Roosevelt, Picasso, and Man Ray, these six women are captured in all their complexity.

Review- This is a very thick and comprehensive book following these six women over the course of WW2. Mackrell does give background information on the women and what they were looking for, to make them go into journalism but the main focus of the book is the war and their lives during it. Mackrell's notes are very useful for future reading about these women and the people in their lives. The writing is good, detailed but not overwhelming. At start of the book, Mackrell gives each women a chapter to herself to give the reader a good understanding of them. Then she dives right into the war itself and everything they went through. I would recommend this book on forgotten WW2 and women's history.

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

65 down and 10 more to go!

Today's post is on Goddess of Filth by V. Castro. It is 141 pages long and is published by Creature Publishing. The cover has a double exposure of a woman's face. The intended reader is someone who likes modern horror. There is foul language, sex, and violence in this novella. The story is from first and third person perspective depending on the character. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- One hot summer night, best friends Lourdes, Fernanda, Ana, Perla, and Pauline hold a séance. It's all fun and games at first, but their tipsy laughter turns to terror when the flames burns straight through their prayer candles and Fernanda starts crawling toward her friends and chanting in Nahuatl, the language of their Aztec ancestors.
Over the next few weeks, shy, modest Fernanda starts acting strangely- smearing herself in black makeup, shredding her hands on rose thorns, sucking sin out of the mouths of the guilty. The local priest is convinced it's a demon, but Lourdes begins to suspect it's something else- something far more ancient and powerful.

Review- A quick read about some young women learning about their own power with the help of an ancient goddess. Lourdes and her friends are just searching for someone to listen to them and their pain and when just playing around, they summon an ancient goddess of women, children, and filth. The goddess and Fernanda have things in common and thus Fernanda makes a good home for the goddess. Then the goddess starting doing what she was worshipped for, she is many things but a sin eater is one of her most important actions. Add in a mystery about women in their neighborhood going missing, the priest being very weird, and other problems that women have in general, then you have the plot. The different perspectives of first person of Lourdes and third person for Fernanda and the goddess was a good way to tell this story, it helps the reader know where and when they are. Castro is a good writer and I look forward to reading more of her work.

I give this novella a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this novel from my local library.

66 down and 9 more to go!