Had some horror over the weekend and wanted to share them with you! One was more body gore, definitely worth heeding the trigger warnings, and one was more traditional horror.

ONWARD!

First up: You Weren’t Meant To Be Human by Andrew Joseph White

Rating: 4 out of 5 worms

There were Trigger Warnings aplenty on this work. ALL OF THEM NEEDED HOLY MOLY. I’m good, I don’t usually need them, but boy am I glad they were there!

Yea. Uh. This is gonna stay with me for a long while. This was absolutely brutal and beautiful. It is VERY graphic and so trigger warnings should be heeded. I read a handful of them and was still struggling with some of it. I cannot possibly imagine what kind of dysmorphia of body and mind must happen in trans individuals. That kind of horror for them, to not understand or be seen is something I don’t have to worry about but I deeply care for my trans community and it hurt my heart to know that these scenarios are something that they contemplate or deal with. Pregnancy is scary anyways but to do so while you are feeling like you’re in the wrong body must be exhausting and terrifying all at the same time. And that’s not to say that those in the community who choose that don’t feel it or anything, I would never assume anything about that. But this book…wow. Just dark and bleak and yet beautiful and hopeful. The pain I felt for Crane was unmatched. Levi was…quite possibly the most horrid being I’ve ever encountered in a novel. Stagger….grew on me. Jess….oh Jess. And Tammy….i don’t know whether to like her or hate her. These characters were so polarizing but I think that was the point. So that by the end, you could absolutely say that Crane did everything he was supposed to do, with the information and tools he had.

Gosh. I don’t even know what to do with myself now that this is over.

Final weekend book: The House That Horror Built by Christina Henry

Rating: 3 out of 5 movie props

This was definitely not as scary as I had hoped it would be. It was enjoyable but I just wanted…more, ya know? I had most of it figured out around the middle, and really there was only one scene that ACTUALLY made me go “Oh! Didn’t see THAT!” But even then, that was the only time. I really did like the characters though, Harry and Gabe and even Javier and Daniel. They were fully fleshed out. The flashback scenes were perfect in establishing their characters and their personalities and the WHY for their motives. It was all great there. The missing thing for me was the actual horror. Maybe I was too fresh off of another horror that was very explicit in its gore and such, but this wasn’t as atmospheric as I wanted it to be. Promising premise but the end fell flat for me.

Overall, a great weekend for reading! I was able to do so by having a mini road trip to spend the weekend with my cousins, a little in state vacation!