Ink of Blood

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I was quite intrigued by the blurb of this book. Although not an entirely original idea, it seemed to have a more unique character. I felt a lot of sympathy for Joy at the beginning of the book and I found her a character who was easy to empathise with.

One of the biggest problems I had with this book was that it felt very disjointed. There were scenes that were set in the past and others set in the present… and it was quite confusing to suddenly end up in a flashback.

I was quite intrigued by the hierarchy in the hospital and the explanations for why they were treated the way they were. I really liked the twins as characters and it was disappointing I didn’t get the opportunity to see more of them. I was confused by just how many people there were in the hospital, though. It wasn’t completely clear how many were on each floor.

I didn’t really like Louis as a character, even though I thought it was understandable that Joy felt the need to connect with someone. I felt that, for a lot of the first part of the book, she seems very passive. It isn’t until later on in part one that she actually starts properly reacting to the situation she’s in.

I actually spent a whole lot of the second half of the book thinking that it was more of a dream world. There were some hints of foreshadowing that I felt weren’t really followed through and I kept wondering if Joy was hallucinating. I thought it was fascinating how she kept trying to imagine what her mother might be like and fantasizing about how meeting her might go.

I was a bit disappointed that there were all sorts of theories about the sickness, but nothing actually discovered. Some of the things, I found quite difficult to follow and some people’s actions didn’t make a whole lot of sense. I did find Darcie to be a fascinating character… though I can’t say I liked her.

I did like Marcus, to an extent. It was interesting to see how he kept hiding behind the masks.

I didn’t really find the ending satisfactory, I have to say. I think there could have been a lot more to the story.

I did find this book easy to read and it didn’t take me as long as I’d expected to finish. I won’t read it again… but I might check out other books by this author in the future.

(I received this book for free, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I felt this was a fairly interesting anthology to read. It was good to see all of these authors writing in a shared universe and how some of the characters were mentioned in more than one story. There were a lot of different kinds of stories, ranging from the truly bizarre to the truly disturbing. It was good to get something of an insight into the characters’ heads.

The first story, I found quite confusing. I wasn’t sure if the narrator was supposed to be one of the kids involved, or a spectator who was unseen. There was an awful lot of violence in some of the stories. The ones that stated the violence outright were disturbing… but the ones that left it up to your imagination were even worse.

The one with the ribbon was particularly interesting, especially considering that something like a ribbon worn around a neck is so innocuous. The personality of the teller seemed completely at odds with what she claimed, though.

I found the story of the twins one that was quite disturbing, too. The whole mistaken identity thing is something that I’ve seen a lot in fiction… but it never fails to be disturbing when one person takes on the identity of another.

There was a good mixture of truths and dares, I felt, and a lot of the short stories did follow the criteria of the normal horror story – especially in there not being a wholly satisfactory conclusion by the end. The short story about the mask creeped me out no end; and the bone witch was truly terrifying.

I was a bit confused about how many there were involved in the Truth or Dare? game. The final story stated at least two hundred… but I’m not sure I could realistically imagine that amount. Not all playing a game together, but perhaps if they’d broken off into small groups.

I found it hard to care about many of the characters, since a lot of them did come across as not very nice people. I would be interested in reading more of these authors’ works in the future, though, and seeing what larger universes they’ve come up with are like.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I found this book quite easy to read. I was somewhat confused by the fact that Wes didn’t know about witches at first, but it made sense as the book went on and I got a bit more of an understanding of the department he’d joined.

I couldn’t help feeling somewhat sorry for Wes. It was interesting to see the author give him a clear weakness, though I did notice it didn’t really seem to crop up as much as it could have done.

I thought it was good how there were the two different types of witches, though what did confuse me a bit was how the witches were one or the other. I wasn’t very clear on if they were born to one or the other, or if it was something they could decide to do or not.

I did find Morgan to be an interesting character, even though I thought she was a bit too stubborn at times. It was interesting to see some of the non-witch people. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for Jasmine at points in this book… and I did think that the face cream was an interesting idea and how it worked sounded quite unique.

I didn’t see a whole lot of difference in the way the different witches cast. I would have liked a bit more explanation about that, especially since most of the witches seemed to make use of rhymes. I didn’t know if that was something all of them used… or just some of them.

It was interesting to see the use of shapeshifting. I would have liked to see a bit more depth to some of the bad characters, though it did seem like some explanation was given for Bernadette. I did like Junie as a character… and I loved the fact she had a cat who actually played a big part in the book later on.

It was interesting to learn of the history of the witches, especially since the Salem Witch trials were a real thing and an awful time in human history. I wasn’t as sold on the romance… I would have liked to see that develop a bit more.

I’d probably be interested in reading a sequel to this book at some point in the future. It would be good to see more of the characters and the next case Alistair and Wes find themselves embroiled in.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

This is another book I have some very mixed feelings about. The premise suggested mystery undertones… but Bexx’s sister wasn’t really mentioned enough to have it make sense that her death was included on the blurb and indicated to be a major part of the book.

The first chapter of this book was fairly interesting to read, but I found it didn’t work so well to keep jumping backwards in time. I felt that the book came across as quite disjointed… particularly when it came to the switching of tenses.

I did find Bexx to be an interesting character, but I felt that she evolved far too quickly. I would have liked to see more of her journey and how she decided to switch sides. There wasn’t really any satisfactory realisation that she was on the wrong side.

I did find it interesting to learn about Bexx’s past and as more was revealed about her, some of her original attitudes did make sense.

I did think there wasn’t enough detail provided about the world Bexx inhabited. I didn’t quite understand the government’s motivations and they just seemed to be putting the seeds in place for their own destruction.

I thought it was good to see Bexx try to survive after she no longer had her home, but when she went to live with the rebels, I felt that her independence and what could have made her an interesting character was gone. It would have been much more interesting to see her properly evolve and change her ideals… and then work to gain the rebels’ trust properly.

There were some quite disturbing scenes and characters towards the end of the book. I did find that the storyline became that bit more intense to read by then. And I was intrigued by the cliff-hanger ending of the book.

I don’t know if I’d read the sequel to this. There were hints of a ‘love at first sight’ thing with Bexx and Shannon, but I’m hoping there’ll be something else involved. I did find this a fairly quick read, though I’m not sure I’d read it again.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

I generally don’t tend to read non-fiction books. I think they remind me too much of school. I probably wouldn’t have chosen to pick up and buy a book like this… but I found it interesting to read; and I think having more of an understanding of how DNA works might give me some help in my writing.

I thought it was interesting to see the theory about how DNA coding might be utilised in the future and also cases of DNA being used now. One thing that I found particularly interesting was the fact that DNA coding has been used in artwork… and that someone has used it to create faces of people. While I have mixed feelings about the ethical nature of doing something like that, it’s still an interesting idea. And the ideas of using Facebook to post pictures of the DNA and in dating profiles are intriguing ones… though everyday people wouldn’t necessarily know how to read the contents of a picture posted like that.

There have been a lot of cases of people getting together romantically, only to find that they’re biologically related… and I thought it was good to see this book touch on those; though I would have liked to see more real-life case examples.

I found it especially interesting to read about how animals’ DNA has been used in investigations… like in the case of Tinker the cat. Of course, the use of DNA testing in crimes was a fairly small part of this book.

I did find some of the scientific language a bit difficult to absorb. I’m not sure this is a good book for beginners… like myself… though I think it suggests future technology that I might be able to make use of in my fictional work. I did think there were too many notes to look up, though. I either had to get to the end of the book to read them (and forget what related to which reference), or keep flicking to the end and then back again.

I plan to pass this book onto my sister, since some of what she’s doing in her course has some relation to the content of this. I do think it’s clear how much research and time went into this book and although I found parts of it hard to read, I imagine there are many people who would find it a useful resource.