The Smell of Ink/Lukten av Trykksverte

It's Friday and perhaps it's time for another Let's Talk Bookish post, courtesy of Book Nook Bits . As it was a bit of a free for all in terms of themes this week, I decided writing about my summer reading plans. Although I'm one of those with a weak spot for all things horror and paranormal and thus read those genres all year around, I can't deny that I occasionally read some lighter books during the summer. I sometimes also try finding some books set during summer, just to get some summer vibes in my reading. I've planned to read some horror and paranormal (obviously), but I'll see if I can also find some other books to read too. I do after all have over 500 unread books in my shelves, so it should be easy enough finding some reading material. Anyway, some of the books on top of my summer TBR includes

It's Tuesday and perhaps time for another Top Ten Tuesday post, courtesy of  That Artsy Reader Girl and the theme of the week was most anticipated books releasing during the second half of 2023. Here's my ten picks. The Reformatory by Tananarive Due Find Him Where You Left Him Dead by Kristen Simmons Generation Annihilation by Tracy Hewitt Meyer My Darling Girl by Jennifer McMahon No Child of Mine by Nichelle Giraldes Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas Her Little Flowers by Shannon Morgan Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

As I've read several other books by Frazer Lee, I ended up reading the horror novel The Skintaker and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads You have what he wants! Reclusive nineteen-year-old Rosie Shields hopes for a new lease of life that will free her from the stigma of her debilitating skin condition. Making a pilgrimage to the Amazon rainforest, Rosie experiences a new world beyond her wildest dreams among the mysterious Myahueneca tribe. But Rosie's dreams soon turn to nightmares when she embarks on a ritual vision quest that takes her to the very heart of darkness. Trapped between murderous hunters and raging forest fires, Rosie will be thrust into a fight for survival, a struggle that awakens an ancient evil stirring in the shadows... the demonic deity known as The Skintaker. My Thoughts on the Book While it was a bit slow in the beginning, the pace picked up after a while and things got interesting to say it the least. With a bunch of characters wi...

I came across the Reader Problems book tag over at  Feed The Crime and I decided to play along as it looked like a fun tag. 1. You have 20,000 books on your TBR, how do you decide what to read next? I usually pull out two or three books that catches my eye, and see which one strikes my fancy there and then as I'm a bit of a mood reader. 2. You’re halfway through a book and you’re just not loving it. Do you put it down or are you committed? It honestly depends a bit, but I often put it down, just so I don't end up in a major reading slump. 3. The end of the year is coming fast and you’re behind on your reading challenge? Do you try to catch up? And if so, how? If I'm behind, I try to catch up by reading novellas and shorter books, as I can read them quickly. 4. The covers of a series you love do not match, how do you cope? I just deal with it. Although it would be nice having matching covers, what's more important is having a complete series. 5. Everyone and their moth...

It's Wednesday and thus time for another Top Five Wednesday post courtesy of the  Top Five Wednesday Goodreads group and the theme of the week was characters I'd love to have at my birthday party. Here's my five picks. Sam and Clive from The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore & Bar by Seana Kelly Abraham Van Helsing from Dracula by Bram Stoker Noemí from Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Jane McKeene from Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

It's Tuesday and perhaps it's time for a new Top Ten Tuesday post courtesy of  That Artsy Reader Girl and the theme of the week was books on my summer 2023 to-read list. Here's my ten picks. Hell House by Richard Matheson Brother by Ania Ahlborn The Fisherman by John Langan The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes The Last Séance: Tales of the Supernatural by Agatha Christie The Plague Stones by James Brogden Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin Banquet for the Damned by Adam L. G. Nevill Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones The Laughing Policeman by Elizabeth J. Brown

Earlier this year, I read the horror novel Suicide Forest by Jeremy Bates and today I'll post my review of this book. Description from Goodreads SUICIDE FOREST IS REAL - ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK Just outside of Tokyo lies Aokigahara, a vast forest and one of the most beautiful wilderness areas in Japan...and also the most infamous spot to commit suicide in the world. Legend has it that the spirits of those many suicides are still roaming, haunting deep in the ancient woods. When bad weather prevents a group of friends from climbing neighboring Mt. Fuji, they decide to spend the night camping in Aokigahara. But they get more than they bargained for when one of them is found hanged in the morning--and they realize there might be some truth to the legends after all. My Thoughts on the Book While it was a bit slow in the beginning, the pace picked up after a while and made the slow beginning worth it. At least the slow beginning set the mood right, considering how bleak it was. Needless...

It's Friday again and time for a new Let's Talk Bookish post courtesy of Book Nook Bits . The theme of the week was books set in real places and here's the further prompts. Do you like books set in real places? How accurate should an author be when writing about a real place? Have you read a book set in your town or city that was depicted in a way you liked or didn’t like? Do you think an author should have firsthand experience of a particular place in order to write about it? I can't deny I do enjoy books set in real places, but I prefer when authors have done their research about that place, or lived there long enough, so it's basically blooper-free accurate. It would after all be a bit humiliating stating Buckingham Palace is located in Stoke-on-Trent, just saying. I once read the crime novel I Will Miss You Tomorrow by Heine Bakkeid, who described Pedersgata in Stavanger (Norway), and as I'm rather familiar with that street, I got a good laugh over his desc...

I came across the Bare Your Bookshelf Tag over at  Bookworm Blogger and I decided to play along as it looked like a fun tag to do. A Book You Own, But Haven’t Read Yet Ghostland by Duncan Ralston Books Your Friends Love Some includes Murder by the Minster by Helen Cox and The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. Books By An Author You Love I love the historical fiction novels by James Holland, and I've got "A Pair of Silver Wings", "The Burning Blue", and "The Odin Mission". Books At The Bottom Of Your TBR A book that's certainly at the bottom of my TBR as I dread reading it, is Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler. Books With Colour In The Title The Night Silver River Run Red by Christine Morgan The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle The Woman in Black by Susan Hill The Jack in the Green by Frazer Lee A Pair of Silver Wings by James Holland The Burning Blue by James Holland Books Set Somewhere You’d Like To Visit The Graveyard Apartment by Mari...

Earlier this year, I read the YA horror novel The Cursed Among Us by John Durgin and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads It has been twenty years since the serial killer known as The Black Heart Killer terrorized the town of Newport in 1979. Life mostly returned to normal after the killer was captured. All the townspeople have to do is stay out of the woods where the bodies were abandoned—their chests ripped open, and their hearts torn out... Howie Burke and his friends decide rules are meant to be broken. That’s what fifteen-year-old kids do. On a beautiful fall day, they decide to go out in the woods to film a horror movie when they stumble across a mysterious grave. What they don’t know is that they are about to release an evil on the town unlike anything in their home-made movies. They will soon uncover the secrets of the Black Heart Killer, and what it truly means to be cursed. My Thoughts on the Book The Cursed Among Us is one of those slightly ...

It's Friday and perhaps it's time for a new Let's Talk Bookish post, courtesy of  Book Nook Bits and the topic of this week is reading along with monthly themes. Here's the further prompts for today. With pride month in June, Black history month in February, Women’s history month in March, and so many more, themes related to race, identity and social justice hold a lot of significance for many communities. There are often reading challenges set around these themes as well. Do you ever read along with monthly themes? How do you think this helps with diversifying reading? And what about the rest of the year? If I have any books fitting the monthly themes, I try to read at least one or two books, but I try to diversify my reading in general and not "only" during those specific months, so it's not a performative action. Like, it's totally fine reading books by Black authors the rest of the year too and not only in February. That said, those months can ra...

It's Wednesday and time for a new Top Five Wednesday post, courtesy of the  Top Five Wednesday Goodreads group and the theme of the week was girl bosses. Here's my five picks. Lizzie Shelley from The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon Jane McKeene from Dread Nation by Justina Ireland Noemí from Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Anna from The Ghost Hunter's Daughter by Caroline Flarity Keira from The Whispering Dead by Darcy Coates

Even though there's plenty of awesome horror novels published in the last decade or so, sometimes it's a bit fun reading older horror novels too and with that in mind, I decided writing a list of five older horror novels worth the read. Here's five older horror novels to pick up. Dracula by Bram Stoker Description from Goodreads Bram Stoker's novel became one of the masterpieces of the horror genre, brilliantly evoking a world of vampires and vampire hunters whilst simultaneously exposing the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and frustrated desire. Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu Description from Goodreads Carmilla is the original vampire story, steeped in the sexual tension between two young women and gothic romance. In an isolated castle deep in the Austrian forest, teenaged Laura leads a solitary life with only her father, attendant and tutor for company. Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest—the beautiful ...

I read the YA novel Asylum by Madeleine Roux a little while ago and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads Madeleine Roux's New York Times bestselling Asylum is a thrilling and creepy photo-illustrated novel that Publishers Weekly called "a strong YA debut that reveals the enduring impact of buried trauma on a place." Featuring found photographs from real asylums and filled with chilling mystery and page-turning suspense, Asylum is a horror story that treads the line between genius and insanity, perfect for fans of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. For sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford, the New Hampshire College Prep program is the chance of a lifetime. Except that when Dan arrives, he finds that the usual summer housing has been closed, forcing students to stay in the crumbling Brookline Dorm—formerly a psychiatric hospital. As Dan and his new friends Abby and Jordan start exploring Brookline's twisty halls and hidden baseme...

After being on hiatus for a few months, I decided getting back into book blogging as I missed it a bit. That said, I'm making use of the hiatus to also change things up a bit on this book blog. Aside from not posting every day, the major change I'm doing to this book blog is to focus on horror and paranormal from now on, which basically excludes anything that doesn't fit into the theme(s) of the spooky and macabre. I may blog about graphic novels and non-fiction, but it needs to fit into the overall new theme of this book blog. Those who know me well enough, know I'm a sucker for horror and the paranormal anyway (pun intended), so it's in a way natural for me to go in this direction anyway. That said, I will still occasionally read books by other genres, but then you'll see me mention whatever book on my  Instagram  instead of on this book blog.