Since it was first published in 1965, The Magus by John Fowles has long been considered a literary masterpiece and one of the first true psychological suspense thrillers. Beset with literary eroticism and a labyrinthine plot that changes with each page, this tome feels like a black and white version of The Matrix. Do you take…
Shatter Me is the first in the Shatter Me trilogy, a series that was incredibly popular a few years back. It’s still fairly popular among the teen fantasy lit readers. There are plenty of similar series out there, but I’ve had this particular one on the radar for a long time due to the number…
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory is the memoir and critical analysis of modern death customs by first-time author Caitlin Doughty. After witnessing a tragic accident that involved a young child, Caitlin developed an obsession with the macabre which evolved into a passion for dark history and a little bit of death. Her…
The City of Mirrors concludes The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin, an epic saga on the struggle for mankind, humanity, and a fight against extinction. In the futuristic landscape of a barren world, the remaining survivors of a pandemic that unleashed lab-engineered vampires into North America fight to stay alive by killing the source. The main story line…
Abandoned by the Vatican: My Clandestine Journey to Support Secret Priests Behind the Iron Curtain is the little known but true tale of the “Book Priest” and his project to secretly ship Catholic books to illegal priests in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Romania during the Cold War. You would think a tale such as this…
Dark Matter is the high-concept and dizzying brainchild of award-winning author Blake Crouch. In this scifi thriller, a once prominent physicist-turned-professor finds himself lost in the multiverse, trying to find his way back to his original reality. Similar to the 90’s television show Sliders, Dark Matter gives a peak into strange and dangerous parallel realities, but with…
The Not-Where, the second installment in the Dark Lands series, seems to be (whether intended or not) a homage to Harry Potter which differs dramatically from your standard fanfiction fare. In this dark supernatural fantasy for young adults, the author seems to be paying tribute to some of our most beloved characters and moments in…
The first in the Dark Lands series, Requiem is a supernatural dark fantasy for young adults. It is high fantasy that takes place in a realm between the living and the dead, or between life and heaven/hell – but not quite purgatory. The Dark Lands, ruled over by skies of rumbling black clouds and lightning…
Recently released, The Lost Girls by Heather Young is a novel that switches between past and present and one that provides characters marked by disturbed minds rivaling those in Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train but with the added satisfaction of actually being believable. This is the story of a young six-year-old girl who vanished without a trace…
The Winner’s Trilogy comes to a close with The Winner’s Kiss as Kestrel and Arin play for keeps in a high-stakes battle between regions within a high fantasy world. We get relief from the romantic frustrations that owned the second book before the real battle commences. But who will win? Will author Rutkoski give us the ending we…