I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyge

“What if the world’s most notorious serial killer… was your dad?” That is the fate of Jasper Dent in I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyge. His father, Billy Dent, went on a killing spree that last for years. For Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was a year-round event. Jasper has witness crime scenes no child should ever. Like how on his ninth birthday, when his father showed him how to use quicklime to dissolve body parts.

Four years after the arrest and trail of Billy Dent, the story begins with Jasper, Jazz for short, trying to figure out if he more like his father than he would want to admit. “It’s not that I want to or don’t want to. It’s just … I can. I could. It’s like… I imagine it’s like being a great runner. If you knew you could run really fast, wouldn’t you? If you were stuck walking somewhere, wouldn’t you want to let loose and run like hell? That’s how I feel.” While part of that story line was interesting, I must say that it was overall a bit flat, drawn out and unbelievable. Although, how can any really write about being a child of a serial killer and really grasp the horrors that they must go through?

Jazz has to live with his grandmother, the woman who raised a serial killer. “Gramma Dent was never all that sane to begin with, her head packed full with a rotting collection of twisted religious dogma, crackpot conspiracy theories, and just plain wrong, handed down from generation to generation.” Although throughout most of the story Gramma Dent is usually drugged with Benadryl by Jazz so that he can get away.

A body is found in a field and Jazz is compelled to find the killer. Jazz feels that since he grew up with a killer, he can solve the crime faster and better than the police.  I will admit that within the first 80 pages or so, I thought I had it figured out who the killer was. I was shocked by the identity of the killer but for the most part everything else was, eh. Yes, this book was a bit disturbing and demented but in the end it just fell flat. For whatever reason, I could not connect to Jasper Dent as a character and thus I really didn’t care what happened to him, one way or the other. :/

Lyga does a good job setting up the series, and yes this is a series. Even without looking it up, I know that this is a series. Maybe the next book will be better? Games, the 2^nd book in the series, comes out April 16, 2013.

Excerpt - What Tears Us Apart

I'm a fan of the free... check out a free excerpt of What Tears Us Apart by Deborah Cloyed.

Click here

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

I am a fan of Stiefvater’s writing. I’ve read and enjoyed all of her books. While the fantasy part of her writings is somewhat a stretch, I think she writes the best characters. They are not only believable, relatable and most importantly lovable, which makes her one of my favorite authors. So, why didn’t I rush out to get The Raven Boys? There is just not enough time to read everything that I want to read. Stupid work gets in the way.

The Raven Boys introduces readers to Richard “Dick” Campbell Gansey, III and Blue Sargent and set in Henrietta, Virginia . Gansey has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for something else. He is on the hunt to find Glendower, a vanished Welsh king. Legend has it that the first person to find him will be granted a wish. Blue Sargent, the daughter of the town psychic, has been told for as long as she can remember that if she ever kisses her true love, he will die. But she is too practical to believe in things like true love. “Aglionby Academy was the number on reason Blue had developed her two rules: One, stay away from boys, because they were trouble. And two, stay away from Aglionby boys, because they were bastards.”

The Raven Boys has everything I want from a great reading experience, a complex narrative, an intriguing and highly developed cast of characters, and an amazing style of writing that just blew me away from the first sentence recounting a dire prophecy. The novel highlights Stiefvater’s dry sense of humor which never once failed to put a stupid grin on my face. I knew I would love this book no matter what from this exchange:

                “Do you see how I’m wearing this apron? It means I’m working. For a living.”

                The unconcerned expression didn’t flag. He [Gansey] said, “I’ll take care of it.”

                She [Blue] echoed, “Take care of it?”

                “Yeah. How much do you make an hour? I’ll take care of it. And I’ll talk to your manger.”

For a moment, Blue was actually lost for words…Then finally, she managed to sputter, “I am not a prosititute.”

Stiefvater has created an enormously complex tale centered on fate and expectations. As I’ve said before, her ‘fantasy’ is a stretch but everything else is beautifully done that I just go with it. I was a bit worried that somehow all these ‘random’ pieces of the story wouldn’t come together but by the end she ties in everything beautifully. I knew about ¾ through the book ‘what’ the sacrifice would be but I was not prepared for its consequences.

With that said, I was not happy that near the end it felt that Stiefvater was trying really, REALLY HARD to set up the stage for the series, it  felt a bit forced and took away some of the awesomeness of this novel. Yet, I am sad that I am done. I miss the characters already and I CANNOT wait for their return in book 2, The Dream Thieves which comes out September 17, 2013. And YES, I have marked my calendar already.

the Horatio Nelson Fiction Prize

Black Balloon Publishing announces the Horatio Nelson Fiction Prize, an award for completed, unpublished manuscripts no less than 50,000 words. The winner will receive $5,000 and a book deal with Black  Balloon.

At Black Balloon Publishing we champion the weird, the unwieldy, and the unclassifiable. We are battle-worn enemies of boredom and we’re looking for books that defy the rules, bend reality, twist preconceptions, and imagine the unimaginable.
More info can be found here.

The Different Girl by Gordon Dahlquist

Hmm the little blurb on the website about the book makes it sound interesting. And the 1st 15 pages have a me a little interested in where this is going to go. What's the island? When and where are they? Add it to the massive pile that doesn't seem to end and/or get smaller.


"Veronika. Caroline. Isobel. Eleanor. One blond, one brunette, one redhead, one with hair black as tar. Four otherwise identical girls who spend their days in sync, tasked to learn. But when May, a very different kind of girl—the lone survivor of a recent shipwreck—suddenly and mysteriously arrives on the island, an unsettling mirror is about to be held up to the life the girls have never before questioned.Sly and unsettling, Gordon Dahlquist’s timeless and evocative storytelling blurs the lines between contemporary and sci-fi with a story that is sure to linger in readers’ minds long after the final page has been turned." - Blurb from the website.

Check out the 1st 15 pages of The Different Girl