Rated A Room with a View 8/10
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Rated John of John 10/10
This might be my favourite [a:Douglas Stuart|19629033|Douglas Stuart|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1570471773p2/19629033.jpg] novel so far. I like the viewpoints of the father and son and it's fun to see their lives and how each sees the other. Maybe a bit less trauma in this one than in his other two books.
Rated Off the Reservation 10/10
Quite good and follows up on [b:The Only Good Indians|52180399|The Only Good Indians (The Only Good Indians, #1)|Stephen Graham Jones|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1601545259l/52180399._SY75_.jpg|71431671] but doesn't quite seem like a *direct* sequel, I'd recommend reading that one first but you'll figure it out if you don't. Had a bit of a jarring change part way through it and lots of bad things happen to the characters, satisfying resolution.
Rated The Kite Runner 10/10
I would like to give this a 4.5 star rating. Lots of stuff I didn't know about Afghanistan and their culture(s), well written but also a lot of stuff I had to suspend disbelief for and some cliche/melodrama plotting. Still, it was hard to put it down.
Rated Grim Folk Tale 8/10
This one is quite good, follows the urban fantasy formula somewhat but there are two main viewpoint characters. Some of the magical rules seem somewhat arbitrary but it makes for a fun story, also I like the moving forward of the main characters' relationships and the resolution to one of the big problems the characters had.
Rated Shift 6/10
Bensel has a talent for creating very specific images that imply multiple meanings. It is easy to see the places in which these poems exist. There is also a definite connection to nature, with birds and water making frequent appearances, and the temperature is often chilly.<br><br>Not every poem was amazing for me, and a few like “Get Nailed” and “Instructions on How to Write a Screenplay” seemed out of place amidst the gritty diner-types and army vets <i>“gettin’ raw.”</i> It’s not that they are bad poems, of course, but they felt like inserted afterthoughts because they were available.<br><br>Still, Bensel has written a very promising chapbook that suggests great writing to come. I do hope we one day see a more expansive collection with her very capable command of theme.<br><br>(My full review appears at <a href="http://www.wordriot.org/archives/4774#">Word Riot</a>.)
Rated Yesteryear 10/10
Very well done and I liked the jumping back and forth between two timelines of the story. I did not like the main character but still wanted to find out what happens to her and the ending was great.
Wants to read Guns Across the River: A Wakeland Novel
Rated Locked In 8/10
Wow, a lot of stuff happens in this one and some old mysteries get solved. I think I read somewhere that there won't be any more of these but this is a decent place to wrap up.
Rated Zero Sum Game 8/10
Fun, lots of action and a main character who can instantly calculate anything and translate the math into action. She also has some interesting personality quirks and even friends, kind of.
Rated She Isn't Herself Tonight 8/10
I think this is the first Hailey Piper that I've read. It is good, I like the main character and there's some kind of symbolism and allegory going on here, but there's also a bit of horror and ambiguity.
Rated The Trees 10/10
Just about every page of this book had me go back and re-read a sentence or paragraph to savour it. The story as a whole starts out like it's going to be an ordinary novel but then it gets more and more bonkers. I don't really know what to compare it to, it's definitely saying something about race relations but it's almost like magical realism meets horror? Very well written even when I didn't really know what's going on.
Rated There Are No Giant Crabs in This Novel: A Novel of Giant Crabs 10/10
These books are so crazy, there is enough weird stuff in any given chapter to equal three or four books by other authors. Fun page turner and lots of twisty plot.
Rated Nobody's Baby 10/10
These are fun fast reads, almost like an old style cozy mystery, except set on a generational space ship. There's not much 'space' to it though, but the mystery is fun and I like the main character.
Wants to read Claire Dewitt And The Bohemian Highway: A Mystery