Taste the Books: Review Morsels #63 Karen A. Wyle, Kate Alice Marshall, KC Jones

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

That the Dead May Rest by Karen A. Wyle (ARC Review)

★★★

After getting word of their bodies reanimating as zombies and killing people, a bunch of spirits start looking for a way to communicate with the living and team up with them in order to stop the carnage.

***

First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley (in the Read Now section). Thanks to BooksGoSocial for providing an ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

Let's start with the positives: I've never read a zombie book like this one, where you get both the POV of the zombies themselves (sort of - and mind you, it's brief but heartbreaking) and of the spirits who once inhabited their bodies (the author seems to suggest that a small part of them still does, but to be honest, I found the concept a bit muddled). Also, this is the first zombie book I've come across where the deceased work alongside the living to defend the human race from the plague - so, again, points for novelty. I didn't even mind that the cause of the zombie apocalypse was never addressed, because the story wasn't about THAT - and I didn't mind the somehow open ending. But the writing didn't work for me, so much that after a while, I got bored and started skim-reading. Basically, though most of the characters were potentially interesting (spirit willing to take a leap of faith to stop her zombie body; fake medium who finds out she's for real; grieving mother who can talk to birds; sister who lost her twin to anorexia), I experienced a sense of disconnect from them - so much that, when a tragic accident befell one of them, it felt almost mundane. At its best, TTDMR is a peculiar mix of afterlife, found family and zombie apocalypse, peppered with interesting ideas; on the other hand, it leaves something to be desired when it comes to its ability to elicit emotion. But if you're looking for a different afterlife or zombie narrative (or an afterlife-meets-zombies narrative, which I think this is the only example of so far), by any means pick this one up.

Note: definitive review (I don't have enough to say to justify writing a full-length one later).

Our Last Echoes by Kate Alice Marshall

★★★★

An 18 y.o. girl's investigation regarding her mother's disappearance and her own fractured memories brings her to a semi-abandoned, monster-filled island that seems intent on claiming her - except the reason is far more terrifying than she could fathom.

***

Please note: Our Last Echoes is, as a matter of fact, a semi-sequel to Rules for Vanishing, at least for what concerns one of its characters (teen paranormal investigator Abby).

After loving Rules for Vanishing, I spent the first half or so of Our Last Echoes in a state of confusion and feeling quite underwhelmed. Some reviewers (like Rachel) have noted that the book sounds like an amalgamation of a few preexisting movie/series themes/plot lines. I can't comment on that, since I haven't seen any of them, but I did get the impression that the story lacked cohesiveness, as if Marshall had thrown a bunch of horror/supernatural premises into a cauldron and was stirring them around without a clear idea of what she was going to cook in there. The second half did start to make sense though, and it picked up steam. I really loved the twist(s) on the "echoes" (sort of hollowed-out and evil doubles) trope, the spooky parallel dimensions, and the ultimate themes of family and sacrifice. The second half was also where the characters started to come more alive for me, though - as with Rules for Vanishing - Marshall's strength lies more in her creepy/horrific, visually stunning alternate worlds than in her ability to make you care for the people who experience them. Finally, be aware that the questions raised by Rules for Vanishing get very little answers, which turn into new questions in the very last pages. The way for another semi-sequel (or maybe more) is paved...

Full review to come.

White Line Fever by KC Jones

★★★★

Four women on a getaway take a detour that plunges them into a nightmare fueled by unspoken trauma - but how, exactly, is the road able to tap into it? and what will it take for them to escape?

***

TW: parental abuse (both physical and psychological), childhood trauma, degenerative disease, death of a parent, toxic relationship, cheating, anxiety, guilt, car/motorcycle crashes, fire, blood and gore, bug horror.

Jones draws on the classic "haunted highway" trope (not a highway in this case, but still) and makes it fresh by adding a captivating flashback arc and a generous dose of repressed trauma. The result is a story that builds towards a deliciously terrifying climax while keeping you on your toes and having you root for the characters (and their younger counterparts, who are clearly headed towards a climax of their own) all the way through. All the protagonists are relatable and tridimensional, and if some of their hallucinations require a bit of suspension of disbelief to buy into (because they manifest in a pretty physical guise), and the flashbacks interrupt the flow in a way that sometimes has the disoriented reader flip back through the pages, it's a small price to pay. On my part, I appreciated the focus on female friendship/empowerment and the queer rep (lesbian and non-binary), and I ate up the road lore and the eerie/sometimes brutal twists and turns. Ultimately, White Line Fever is a successful blend of supernatural horror (with great visuals) and psychological drama (of a powerful kind) that will have readers racing alongside the characters to uncover the Devil's Driveway mystery and see what the ending has in store for them.

Note: as a rule, I review every book that I rate 4 stars and above in full, unless it's a novella or an anthology. But I didn't want to go in too deep about this one to avoid spoilers, and it felt easy to summarise its contents (and my opinions) in a few sentences, so I took the mini-review route.

So, have you read/are you planning to read any of the above? And if you have, what do you think of them? Do you post mini reviews? Do you like to read them?