The Sin-Eater's Confession by Ilsa J. Bick

I was very excited to be approved for this ARC.  I mean look at the cover of this book!  It's awesome, and that alone made me want to read it.  Then there's the description:

People in Merit, Wisconsin, always said Jimmy was . . . you know. But people said all sorts of stupid stuff. Nobody really knew anything. Nobody really knew Jimmy.
I guess you could say I knew Jimmy as well as anyone (which was not very well). I knew what scared him. And I knew he had dreams—even if I didn't understand them. Even if he nearly ruined my life to pursue them.
Jimmy's dead now, and I definitely know that better than anyone. I know about blood and bone and how bodies decompose. I know about shadows and stones and hatchets. I know what a last cry for help sounds like. I know what blood looks like on my own hands.

What I don't know is if I can trust my own eyes. I don't know who threw the stone. Who swung the hatchet? Who are the shadows? What do the living owe the dead?

Seriously, this book sounded amazing.  Then I started reading.  I know that this book is about a gay character, but honestly, this character was described as so over the top blindingly stereo-typically GAY! that I just could not deal with it.  Plus, the main character's voice was just meh.  The setting kind of threw me off, because it reads almost like a historical novel, but not quiet.  I honestly didn't make it very far through this book before my mind wandered and I just started thinking that I didn't care what had happened to any of the characters.

The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth Laban

At the Irving School (a boarding school in New York) it is tradition that the parting seniors leave a treasure behind for the next person to inherit their room.  Duncan arrives on his first day of his senior year concerned with two things, what his treasure will be, and what is he going to do about the Tragedy Paper that each senior must write. Duncan inherits Tim Macbeth's room, and the treasure left behind will influence Duncan's paper in ways he never thought.

It's hard and also simple to describe what this book is really about.  It's a boarding school/mystery/coming of age type novel, but it's in many ways more complex than that.  The story is pretty straight forward, even though the description on Amazon focuses on Tim's story (which we learn about while Duncan listens through the Cd's Tim has left him), it isn't just about Tim.  It's about Duncan, and also how Duncan and Tim's interactions influence them both.

There is a mystery with this book.  We learn early on that Tim's Cd's will help Duncan out with his Tragedy Paper, but we don't know until the end exactly what the tragedy is.  Tim himself is a tragic character, an albino who by chance shares a flight with a fellow classmate, whom he promptly develops a crush on, only to find out she is currently dating the most popular buy in school even though she also seems to be into Tim.  Tim's voice is distinct, and not as self pitying as he could come across.  Some of the relationships in the book are a little superficial (especially Duncan's relationship with his girlfriend Daisy), but the characters are relatable.  After while, I had a hard time putting this book down, and I could not wait to get to the end to find out what happened.

This review is based on an e-ARC I obtained through Netgalley.  I earned no awesome free swag for reviewing this book.

Frozen by Mary Casanova

Sadie Rose has been cared for by the senator and his wife for 11 years, ever since she was found almost frozen to death in a snowbank near her dead mother.  For these 11 years Sadie Rose's voice remained frozen, until she finds hidden pictures of her mother and decides to start piecing together the mystery of her mother's death, and Sadie's place in this world.

This novel is set on the border between Minnesota and Canada during the 1920's.  Sadie is looking for a place to belong, for the family she feels she never had (the family she lives with has chosen never to adopt her).  She is also starting to learn to form her own opinion, especially about the development of the area she lives in and the logging industry.

Sadie Rose is a likable character, and her desire to belong and to be part of a family are ones that almost any reader can relate to.  The setting in this novel is a bit muddled, since I don't know the area, and it appears to be a large grouping of islands that the book takes place on, I wasn't able to really understand the setting.

I read this book quickly, but in the end I just thought it was OK.  I generally really enjoy historical fiction, and the 1920's are a time I enjoy reading about, but I just never found myself overly invested in the characters or the story.

What We Saw at Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard

This review is based an ARC e-book I received from Netgalley

I was very excited to see What We Saw at Night as one of the books that I could request from Netgalley.  I'd read a review of it and the premise seemed really interesting  The story is about three teens in MN who have XP, a severe allergy to sunlight.  These teens live their whole lives in the darkness of night.   As a trio the teens (Allie, Rob, and Juliet) take up parkour and it is during one of their parkour adventures that they see the dead girl.  This event triggers a shift in the trio's entire world.

What We Saw at Night tries to be too many things. Allie is falling in love for the first time, Juliet wants to escape her small world, and Rob seems to be there just to be pretty.  Some characters are introduced and then dropped, and apparently everyone is so sympathetic to these teens and their XP that they are allowed to do virtually anything they want.  The mystery of the dead girl, and of a possible serial killer in a small town kept me reading through the uneveness of the rest of the book, but I was left unfulfilled by the book's cliffhanger ending.  The preview for the next book in the series (trilogy?) continues the author's self indulgence in Allie's perceived downward spiral, and I am not sure I can make myself read more of that.

I am still considering getting this for the library. The premise is very interesting, and I may be being overly critical.

I Love My Slow Cooker (US Edition) - a review

For my birthday my awesome fiance bought me a Kindle!  So, one of the first things I did was sign up for Netgalley and start working on reading some awesome e-books.  I requested, and was approved for, I Love My Slow Cooker: More than 100 Recipes for Delicious Meals for the Whole Family (US Edition).  This was the first cook book I looked at on my Kindle and I was excited.  I've just started using my slow-cooker, and honesty that thing is awesome!  I can put stuff in before I go to work, and when I get home later I have food already made!  Yay!

I decided I wanted to use the slow cooker this week, and figured that would be a good chance to use this Netgalley book to its full potential.  So, I opened the book and started looking for something to make.  The layout of the book was fine, and I was able to find the part with meat based recipes easily, the only problem was that none of the recipes looked like something I would eat.  Most of them would start out OK, but then they would add something like apricots to a dish with olives.  They just did not sound appetizing at all.  I ended deleting the book off the Kindle and not making anything from it.  I was sadly disappointed.

31 Days of Halloween 2012 pt. 2

Welcome back to the 31 Days of Halloween!!!  It's been a bit since I updated what we've been watching, but here I am.  Also, I am thinking I might attempt a video review for some of the next set of movies/TV shows/ and the concert we went to.

Ok, so here goes at least one chunk of Halloween reviewing.

Quantum Leap Season 3 Halloween episode.  Aka "the Stephen King episode."  Not scary, just fun.  I love Quantum Leap, and I remember watching this episode with my dad and him laughing about it.

Cabin in the Woods (2011) - This movie was way better than I expected it to be.  Yes, it is a slasher movie, but it is also done by Joss Whedon (he of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly fame).  His normal sense of humor is in the movie, and there is a TON of gore.  We really enjoyed this film.

The Descent - This is a movie that I have been scared to watch for a few years.  I am terribly claustrophobic underground or underwater, so I figured this movie would scare me to death.  Honestly, it was not anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be.  It was gruesome, but not over the top.  The character interaction was pretty interesting.  Again, an enjoyable horror movie.

Zodiac - Now this is more of a drama than a horror movie.  But, it's a good movie, and it is about a serial killer, so it qualifies for this month.  I've seen this before, but it was worth a second viewing.  The Zodiac case is creepy, and the cinematography on this movie is awesome.

The Ward - This movie was advertised by Netflix as a John Carpenter movie.  Supposedly he directed it.  I think he wrote some music for it (at least that sounded like his kind of music), but other than that it didn't really feel like a Carpenter movie.  This is about a girl named Kristen who ends up in a psych ward with other young women and these women are slowly being killed off by the ghost of a former patient.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best movie ever.

Along with these we've been watching Supernatural.  We are onto season 4 which includes the introduction of Castiel the socially awkward angel!

That's it for now.  I still have a lot of catching up to do with what we've watched.  This has been a fun year so far though.  I am trying some new movies that I wasn't brave enough to watch before, and I am really in the Halloween spirit!

31 Days of Halloween 2012! Day 3

It's October!!!  Yay!!  So that means it's back to the 31 Days of Halloween, where my fiance and I watch one horror movie or TV show, or Halloween themed movie or tv show every night for the whole month!  I think we are starting a tradition of kicking off the month with the remake of Night of the Living Dead.  It was one of my fiance's favorites from when he was a kid, and it's a zombie movie that does not scare the living hell out of me so it's a win-win situation.

Last night we watched Dolly Dearest, a wanna be knock off of Child's Play starring Star Trek TNG's Tasha Yar & and the kid who played the main character's dead brother in Sometime's They Come Back.  Oh yeah, it also has Rip Torn in it.  This movie is about a cult whose goat headed demon child "god" was entombed, then tomb was disturbed, and now this goat demon is taking over dolls made at a local factory and using them to possess a young girl.  It was pretty boring, and honestly, that's about all there is to say about that movie.

So, we have to decide what to watch tonight.  Apparently I get to pick, so we'll see what I come up with!