Taste the Books: Review Morsels #66 Dana Mele, Channelle Desamours, Christopher Pike

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 STILL writing long reviews too - but for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis, and I took to writing them also for novels that I can do justice to in a less wordy fashion, in order to ease my reviewing burden. In addition to that, I sometimes write minis for books I don't want/don't have the time to review in full at the moment, but plan on rereading and writing "proper" reviews for later. Lastly, just be warned - this feature is VERY random!

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

The Beast You Let In by Dana Mele (ARC Review)

★★★

The lives of two estranged twins are upended when one of them allegedly gets possessed by the spirit of a local girl whose murder she was investigating, and the other unleashes an unspeakable horror while trying to save her sister.

***

Rated 3.5 really.

First off...DISCLAIMER: this title was up for grabs on NetGalley (in the Read Now section). Thanks to Sourcebooks Fire for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

If the first half had been on par with the second, this would have been an easy 4-star novel. Midway through, there are a few twists (one of which took me by surprise and made me revalue what I'd read up to that point), a change of narrator (coming with a stronger, more level-headed perspective), lots of social commentary, madcap supernatural action, and you feel like you're reading a completely different book. Alas, up to that point I'd been confused and not particularly wowed by Hazel's inner monologue, and not just because she's not supposed to have the answers we're looking for. For instance, until the author switched to Beth's POV, I didn't really buy into the latter's obsession with a 26-year-old murder, and the other characters didn't come off as very interesting or well-developed when seen from Hazel's perspective...not to mention, the snippets from the murdered girl's poems interspersed thorough the story were too cryptic, and frankly, not very good. The second half of the novel picked up in more than a way, and delivered strong horror (both of the body/bug variety and the supernatural one) while dealing with prejudice, bigotry and patriarchy, which are their own brand of horror anyway (and an even more terrifying one at that). If I have to be nitpicky about the final denouement, I don’t think you can function that well with a broken leg, even with adrenaline and fear at the wheel, but that’s a minor qualm. The epilogue was…interesting, but frankly, I wish the author wouldn’t have gone there. Anyhow, worth a read for anyone who enjoys horror-tinged mysteries, legacy of blood, queer identities vs. toxic environments, and complicated sibling relationships.

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

They Call Her Regret by Channelle Desamours (ARC Review)

★★★

When an accident at her birthday party causes her best friend Kira's death, Simone makes an impossible deal with a local cursed spirit to undo the tragedy; but the cost is sky-high, and if she doesn't find a way to free the ghost from her haunting place in 14 days, Kira will die again - at the hands of Simone herself.

***

Rated 3.5 really.

First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ)/Bloomsbury YA for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

They Call Her Regret relies far more on atmosphere, a not exactly forthcoming narrator and antagonist, and a tension-inducing countdown, than it does on horror/gore (a rarity these days). It's a Pandora's box of buried secrets, trauma, grief, guilt and, unsurprisingly, regret, and if (like in the Greek myth) hope is what is left at the bottom of the container, it comes with a generous side of eleventh-hour twists that I didn't see coming, and an epilogue that - while giving closure - introduces an element designed to keep you guessing. I appreciated the focus on guilt/redemption, the discourse about selfishness, and the coming-of-age aspect, while I'm in two minds about the heartfelt but messy friendship at the core of the story - probably true to life, but Simone did something to Kaia (well, a couple of somethings) that I don't have it in me to condone. I also think that there was a leap of logic when it came to Simone's attempt to free the ghost witch and its link with the disappearance of another young woman (on a side note, I can't see why Regret couldn't have volunteered to offer the necessary details to Simone so that the poor girl could meet her end of the bargain - it's not like she was cursed to keep her mouth shut about them, too). I mean, there is, indeed, a link between them, but it only becomes apparent during the final showdown. Finally, the secrets Simone and Kira have to keep from their families in the aftermath are earth-shattering, and I find it very hard to believe that they (especially Kira) would be able to do that. That being said, TCHR is a layered, compelling blend of mystery, supernatural and coming-of-age narrative walking the line between familiar and unexpected, and readers in the appropriate age range are going to eat it up.

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

Getting Even by Christopher Pike

(Cheerleaders #2)

★★

A freshly assembled squad of cheerleaders has to contend with a girl who didn't make the cut, all while navigating the dating world and learning to stick together.

***

Sort-of-disclaimer: I only read this one because I'm a Pike completionist, but high school dramance (drama+romance...look, I invented a word! eat it, "romantasy" coiners! 😂 😉) isn't exactly my scene LOL - so I haven't read the rest of the series, though I made up for that by reading the hilarious recaps on this blog.

Premise: there are 47 books in this series (all very short by the way, akin to nowadays novellas - such was the average length for YA books in the '80s), written by a bunch of different authors, and Pike (here on his second novel) got to work with the characters and material already established by Caroline B. Cooney in Book 1 - so it's not like he could do much better than this...Also, it's notable that he's the only male author to have been involved in the series (maybe because he was the only male author writing "girl books" at the time). Anyhow, Getting Even is very much a child of its era, with catty girls, volatile romances and plot points that get resolved in a matter of pages, if not lines - and yet, you can see the germ of Pike's Final Friends trilogy in here, plus both his writing style and certain more adult references than the ones his fellow authors would make at the time are unmistakable («They didn’t pass the point of no return, but having Patrick’s arms around her made it easy to fantasize what it would be like beyond that mystical point» 😂). To his credit, here and there Pike does try to give these cheerleaders (four girls and two boys) a little more depth than one would expect, but in the frame of an ongoing story he only gets to tell a fraction of, it's a desperate bid. Frankly, neither this book nor the whole series have aged well, and they are light years away from current YA, which makes sense, since forty years have passed...but again, after leaving this series behind, Pike would soon demonstrate that - even within the limits of the era - when flying solo, he could do much better.

On a side note (or three)...

1) «When Mary Ellen got to her door, a figure moved out of the shadows. Mary Ellen caught her breath in fear, until she realized it was Patrick.

"I thought you were sick, Patrick," she said."You scared the life out of me."

"I felt better and I wanted to make sure you got home all right. I just wanted to see you for a few minutes, Mary Ellen. I hate it when you're out with other guys. I want to be the one you're with."»

OK, ME is actually leading on both Patrick and a fellow male cheerleader at the same time (though here she's just been taken home by the other male cheerleader in her squad, who lusts after her too!), and Patrick's demeanor was what passed for romantic at the time, but UUUUUGH NOPE. THERE'S NO EXCUSE FOR THIS CREEPY STUFF.

2) Pike makes sure to explain what the UNICEF acronym stands for 😂 - because of course readers wouldn't have a clue what its purpose is if he didn't...🙄

3) One of the girls' love interests plays in a band called "Stray Leopards". I bet Pike was proud of himself for coming up with this pun LOL (wait...you remember Stray Cats, don't you? 😶).

Note: definitive review (I don't have enough to say to justify writing a full-length one later, and of course I don't plan to reread this book; also, due to time commitments, I've decided not to write full-length reviews anymore for short stories, novellas and anthologies, except in special cases or unless they're part of a series).

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?