audiobook review

NETGALLEY BOOK REVIEW: Youthjuice by E.K. Sathue

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⭐ Quick Snapshot

  • Genre: Horror / Satire
  • Format: Audiobook (via NetGalley)
  • Published: 2024
  • Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)

✨ First Impressions

I received this audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The premise immediately caught my attention: a wellness empire in NYC with a too-good-to-be-true beauty product. I expected satire, but what I got was something darker, stranger, and far more entertaining.

📖 What It’s About (Spoiler-Free)

Sophia works at HEBE, a luxury skincare and wellness company in SoHo. She struggles with childhood trauma and chews her hands until they’re raw—hiding them beneath gloves. When HEBE gifts her their latest product, youthjuice, Sophia tests it on her damaged skin, and the results are nothing short of miraculous.

But perfection comes at a cost. As Sophia digs deeper into HEBE’s pristine facade, she uncovers disturbing truths behind the cream’s effectiveness—and what she finds is both horrifying and hilarious.

🖋️ Writing & Style

Sathue’s writing blends biting satire with grotesque body horror. The pacing keeps you hooked: mundane office culture one moment, a shocking reveal the next. The narration in the audiobook amplified the unsettling, glossy-yet-creepy tone perfectly.

👤 Characters / Key Ideas

  • Sophia: a flawed but sympathetic lead—her gloves and anxieties make her feel very real.
  • HEBE: less a company than a character itself, with its polished branding hiding depravity.
  • Themes: beauty standards, consumerism, and the horror of what we’ll endure for perfection.

💡 Highlights & Favorite Moments

  • The opening immediately sets a tone of dread mixed with humor.
  • The reveal about Sophia’s lace gloves was one of the most disturbing—and memorable—twists.
  • The slow unraveling of youthjuice’s secret kept me both horrified and amused.

🤔 What Could Be Better

The horror is deliciously grotesque, but some readers may find the body horror a little too intense or over the top. If you prefer your satire sharp but subtle, this one doesn’t hold back.

🎯 Final Verdict

Youthjuice is a disgustingly fun mix of satire and horror. It exposes the rot under glossy consumer culture, all while making you laugh, cringe, and squirm. If you like American Psycho meets The Devil Wears Prada—with a horror twist—this is a must-read (or listen).

📌 Verdict: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)

💬 Let’s Discuss!

Have you read Youthjuice yet? Did the mix of horror and humor work for you, or was it too grotesque? Let me know what you think in the comments!

BOOK REVIEW: Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

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Audiobook Length: 8 hours and 1 minute

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, LGBT

No. of Book in Series: 0

Goodreads’ Synopsis: When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn’t always what we seek.

In Bookshops & Bonedust, a prequel to Legends & Lattes, New York Times bestselling author Travis Baldree takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books.

Viv’s career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned.

Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it.

What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?

Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn’t possibly imagine.

Still, adventure isn’t all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.

Read Start Date: April 1, 2024

Read Finish Date: April 8, 2024

My Review: I borrowed this audiobook from the library as it was on top of the “popular” list. I knew nothing about it, nor did I even read the synopsis before reading (as is mostly the case when I check books out this way). The characters are fantasy creatures such as Orcs, Elves, etc., but I felt the author could have easily just transferred the characters to humans, which would have made no difference. I never really felt how each species was different i.e., how their species made them unique or what attributes it gave them (other than being big in Viv’s case) or what the characters looked like.

Essentially, the story is about an Orc who works as a mercenary. She is injured and must convalesce until her mercenary group returns from their next mission. While looking around the town, she finds a bookshop and becomes friends with the owner, Fern, a “Ratkin” (which I assume is some giant rat?). Fern says swear words a lot, which fell flat if it was supposed to lend a funny air to the book.

While this book was imaginative and entertaining to listen to, I struggled to identify what this book was trying to be. It was definitely not your typical fantasy book. I couldn’t help making parallels to the book I read a while back called The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan (see my review here). Bookshops & Bonedust felt more like a feel-good story about saving a struggling bookstore than a fantasy adventure. I should note here, however, that a subplot does involve a necromancer.

Unfortunately, although Goodreads identifies this book as a “romance,” and there is a romance subplot, I didn’t feel it. There was no heat, no fire. I just didn’t feel the connection between Viv and her romantic interest.

In conclusion, my experience with Bookshops & Bonedust was mixed. I recommend this book to readers interested in narratives that blend fantasy elements with everyday life. However, readers seeking intense romance or action-packed adventures may want more from the book. Ultimately, Bookshops & Bonedust offers a charming escape for those who appreciate whimsical storytelling and are open to blended genres.

NETGALLEY BOOK REVIEW: “My Husband’s Trying to Kill Me!”: A True Story of Money, Marriage, and Murderous Intent by Jim Schutze

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Audiobook Length: 9 hours and 25 minutes

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Nonfiction, True Crime

Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller

Published Date: 2023

Goodreads’ Synopsis: From an award-winning journalist, this “grippingly suspenseful true-crime tale details the foiling of a wealthy Texan’s plot to have his wife murdered”(Publishers Weekly).

To the world, Linda DeSilva’s marriage to Robert Edelman was perfect. He was her college boyfriend turned wealthy and successful husband, and the father of her children. But what friends and family didn’t know was that the Texas real estate tycoon who set her up with a luxurious life in Dallas was also her abuser. When she asked him for a divorce, the violence against her only escalated, until the shocking moment she learned her husband had hired an assassin to take her life. 

From acclaimed journalist and author Jim Schutze, “My Husband’s Trying to Kill Me!” is the riveting true-crime account of how Linda DeSilva worked with the FBI to trap her husband before he could act on his murderous intentions—and how the sting operation nearly got her killed instead. A shocking and sensational story of a wife and mother’s escape from the marriage that went from American dream to every woman’s worst nightmare.

Read Start Date: March 23, 2024

Read Finish Date: March 27, 2024

My Review: I received this audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Linda Edelman didn’t know the truth about Robert until he first punched her in the face. A real scum bag, he was only interested in money and winning. He made her life hell when she finally asked for a divorce, using the children as pawns against her. He didn’t care about them — he only cared that he was taking them away from Linda. Unfortunately, there are many abusers out there, but not all of them stoop to hiring a hitman.

Written like a fiction novel, this book spans from the early part of their marriage until Robert is tried and convicted. It is well written, well researched, and it kept my attention. I was eager to keep listening, and was always astonished and disgusted at Robert’s antics.

I would definitely recommend it to true crime fans.

Reviews Published
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

NETGALLEY BOOK REVIEW: Crash Course by Julie Whipple

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Audiobook Length: 8 hours and 2 minutes

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Nonfiction, Aviation

Publisher: Yamhill Canyon Press

Published Date: 2018

Goodreads’ Synopsis: On a cold winter night, a passenger jet with 189 aboard crash landed, out of fuel, in a suburban neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. Ten people died. The pilot was blamed and stripped of his career, and a sweeping transformation of flight-crew training took place that made United Flight 173 (in)famous worldwide as the model for failure and change. That was only the half of it.

Hiding in plain sight for years in an attorney’s file boxes, the forgotten truths of the landmark air disaster reveal much more: an emotional journey tethered to the disgraced pilot and a three-year-old girl who survived the crash and became an unlikely hero for justice and public safety in the dramatic legal battle that followed.

Crash Course, by award-winning journalist Julie Whipple, is the long-overdue, true story of a misunderstood airline tragedy that changed more about our daily lives than most people know. Here is why we’re safer today, how we’re not, and what we can do about it.

Read Start Date:  March 16, 2024

Read Finish Date: March 23, 2024

My Review: I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I had never heard of this 1978 crash in Portland, Oregon. Luckily, most of the passengers survived, but many suffered lifelong effects such as PTSD. The book discusses what happened and dives into the legal battles that followed. Whipple, the daughter of the lawyer who handled one such lawsuit, focuses mainly on her father’s case, which involved the personal injury lawsuit of a small child injured in the crash. She lost her entire family (parents and two sisters) and was suffering from not only physical injuries but emotional and mental as well.

I thought the book was well-researched and well-written. Although it describes a horrific event, the author doesn’t spend too much time on gory details, which is nice. Even though it was a nonfiction book, I was utterly invested in the outcome of little Lisa’s trial. She suffered so much, and I wanted a good outcome for her. I rejoiced when the jury gave her compensation and was morally outraged by the airline’s callous, reckless behavior.

Overall, this book seems like a good pick for readers who enjoy a mix of true crime, legal drama, and human interest stories, all presented in a well-written and informative way.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

NETGALLEY BOOK REVIEW: Quozl by Alan Dean Foster

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Audiobook Length: 13 hours and 28 minutes

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Science Fiction, Aliens

Publisher: Dreamscape Media

Published Date: February 20, 2024

Goodreads’ Synopsis: Rabbitlike aliens from outer space colonize Earth during humankind’s Second World War in a delightfully funny and thought-provoking science fiction adventure. 

The Quozl just need somewhere to call home. A gentle race of extraterrestrial rabbits, they have a propensity for reproduction that has left their home planet, Quozlene, dangerously overpopulated, and in their search for greener and less-crowded pastures, they have discovered the perfect place to start the third planet away from a healthy, warming sun. What they don’t realize is that this world they call Shiraz is already inhabited by a species of violent sentient creatures known as humans.   But there’s no going back now. In the midst of the brutal and helpfully distracting global conflict the Shirazians call World War II, the colony ship lands undetected, and the space rabbits immediately go into hiding. But a secret like the Quozl can be concealed for only so long, especially when their numbers start to increase and certain rebellious members of the long-eared society decide the time is ripe to claim their place in a world they believe is rightfully theirs.   One of the most admired and prolific authors in the science fiction arena, Alan Dean Foster will delight readers who hunger for something different with this funny, thoughtful, and wildly inventive novel of first contact and coexistence. Once you meet the Quozl, you will never forget them.

Read Start Date: March 7, 2024

Read Finish Date: March 16, 2024

My Review: I received this audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The story centers around a race of rabbit-like aliens called the Quozl who are on a mission to find a new home planet. Their spaceship is a generation ship, meaning that the Quozl on board are descendants of the original colonists and have never set foot on a planet before.

The Quozl land on Earth during World War II and are shocked to discover that Earth is already inhabited by another intelligent species. The Quozl are a peaceful and docile race, and they are horrified by the violence and destruction they witness on Earth. They decide to keep their presence a secret and establish an underground colony. They are worried about what humans will do to them if they are discovered.

At first, the story follows a Quozl named Looks-at-Charts: A scout on the Quozl ship. He’s responsible for finding a suitable planet and plays a crucial role in the initial landing on Earth. In the second part, the story shifts to Looks-at-Charts’ extended relation, Runs-Red-Talking, who stumbles across a human child, and this simple interaction will start a chain of events that will forever change Quozl’s history.

What I liked most about the book was Foster’s detailed alien culture of the Quozl. Their social structure, communication, and motivations are interesting and well-explored. I also liked that they were giant rabbits, and in many respects, they had the same character traits as Earth rabbits, which was rather humorous.

The pacing could have been improved. Although the book kept my attention, the story sometimes moved slower than I would have liked. For example, the book spans many decades, with the main storyline happening in the present. The beginning world-building part was the aspect that dragged a bit, although it did build a good foundation for the main plotline.

Overall, Quozl is a charming and entertaining read that will leave you smiling. It’s a perfect pick-me-up for anyone who enjoys lighthearted sci-fi.

Reviews Published
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

NETGALLEY BOOK REVIEW: Holus Bolus by William Pauley III

/ E.A. Hoffmann / 1 Comment

Audiobook Length: 5 hours and 37 minutes

Rating:  5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Bizarro Fiction, Horror,

No. of Book in Series: 6

Publisher: Doom Fiction

Published Date: June 1, 2023

Goodreads’ Synopsis: OUR PROTAGONIST is pretty sure he’s just committed a murder. The body is newly dead, he’s the only one around, and a quick look at the evidence suggests he’s guilty as sin.

Also, he’s totally insane.

A rare brain condition causes his memories to reset every day, and because of this, he often wakes up in strange places with no memory of how he got there. He can’t even remember his own name. When he’s not racking his brain over his shoddy memory, he’s arguing incessantly with a disembodied voice that doesn’t seem to belong to him, one he can only hear inside his head.

He may not know much about the troubling situation he just woke up to, but he knows, without a doubt, that he’s completely f*cked.

While the odds are certainly stacked against him, there may be hope for our protagonist yet, for clutched in the corpse’s cold, clammy hands is a handwritten tome that suggests not only his innocence, but also reveals some bizarre and dangerous secrets, leading him to believe his own apartment building may be to blame… or is, at the very least, an accomplice.

That sounded better inside his head.

Luckily he’s not the only one trying to solve the case. The book also leads him to a group of outcasts who are in the midst of their own investigation. The only problem? They all suspect one another!

One thing’s for certain, someone inside the tower is a cold-blooded killer. Can our protagonist solve the murder before he falls asleep and his memories reset? Or worse, before the killer strikes again?

Find out in HOLUS BOLUS. You’ll be pushed to the very edge of sanity!

Read Start Date: March 1, 2024

Read Finish Date: March 7, 2024

My Review: I received this audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is yet another unique and brilliantly written novel from William Pauley III. The fantastic Connor Brannigan returns as the narrator. While it is the sixth book in the Bedlam Bible series, the main character, along with a few other characters, are from another book, The Doom Magnetic Trilogy.

The story opens with a bang, throwing you headfirst into the nightmarish reality of the protagonist. Waking up next to a dead body with no memory is a terrifying proposition, but add a dash of amnesia that wipes the slate clean every night, and you have a recipe for heart-pounding suspense. Is he really the killer? Was it someone else? How did he come to be in this situation? And what the hell is Holus Bolus, and what will happen when the counter gets to zero?

The supporting cast is quirky and enjoyably weird, and the last portion of the book twists and turns in a way that I never saw coming.

As with all of Pauley’s books, this one is a must read for fans of the weird and those who can handle descriptive violence and gore.

Other Books I’ve Read in this Series:

To see my review of the above book, please click on the following titles: The Tower, White Fuzz, The Astronaut Dream Book, Fight Tub, The Ballad of Old Joe Booth, Twelve Residents Dreaming.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

BOOK REVIEW: Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity by Peter Attia

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Audiobook Length: 17 hours and 7 minutes

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Genre: Nonfiction, Health, Science, Self-Help

Read Start Date: January 8, 2024

Read Finish Date: January 18, 2024

Goodreads’ Synopsis: Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.

For all its successes, mainstream medicine has failed to make much progress against the diseases of aging that kill most people: heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and type 2 diabetes. Too often, it intervenes with treatments too late to help, prolonging lifespan at the expense of healthspan, or quality of life. Dr. Attia believes we must replace this outdated framework with a personalized, proactive strategy for longevity, one where we take action now, rather than waiting.

This is not “biohacking,” it’s science: a well-founded strategic and tactical approach to extending lifespan while also improving our physical, cognitive, and emotional health. Dr. Attia’s aim is less to tell you what to do and more to help you learn how to think about long-term health, in order to create the best plan for you as an individual. In Outlive, readers will discover:

• Why the cholesterol test at your annual physical doesn’t tell you enough about your actual risk of dying from a heart attack.
• That you may already suffer from an extremely common yet underdiagnosed liver condition that could be a precursor to the chronic diseases of aging.
• Why exercise is the most potent pro-longevity “drug”—and how to begin training for the “Centenarian Decathlon.”
• Why you should forget about diets, and focus instead on nutritional biochemistry, using technology and data to personalize your eating pattern.
• Why striving for physical health and longevity, but ignoring emotional health, could be the ultimate curse of all.

Aging and longevity are far more malleable than we think; our fate is not set in stone. With the right roadmap, you can plot a different path for your life, one that lets you outlive your genes to make each decade better than the one before.

My Review: Modern medicine focuses on treating diseases after they appear, while longevity science aims to prevent them altogether. Attia argues that traditional medicine, often referred to as “Medicine 2.0,” is stuck in a reactive mode, waiting for diseases like heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and type 2 diabetes to manifest before intervening. This approach, he suggests, can prolong lifespan but often at the expense of healthspan, the quality of life during those additional years. By optimizing our lifestyle choices in four key areas – nutrition, exercise, sleep, and emotional health – we can significantly impact our health span and potentially lifespan. Attia calls this proactive approach “Medicine 3.0.”

The book delves deep into the science behind these areas, exploring cutting-edge research and presenting practical tools and techniques for optimizing each pillar. Key elements include nutrition, exercise, sleep, and emotional health. Attia advises establishing a personalized approach to longevity, encouraging readers to move beyond one-size-fits-all solutions and experiment to find what works best for their unique biology and circumstances. The book aims to empower individuals to take control of their health and chart a course toward a longer, healthier, and more fulfilling life.

What I liked about the book was that it gave me ideas on how to improve my overall health. I even bought a copy for my mom to read. What I didn’t like about the book was all the medical jargon. Especially listening to it as an audiobook, I got lost in all the acronyms and scientific parlance. As someone with a family history of heart disease, I thought that this book gave important tips as to what to look out for and what tests to ask my doctor to perform.

I would recommend this book to individuals curious about the science behind aging and the latest research in longevity and/or those seeking personalized and evidence-based approaches to improve their diet, exercise routine, sleep quality, and emotional well-being.

NETGALLEY BOOK REVIEW: Hearers of the Constant Hum by William Pauley III

/ E.A. Hoffmann / 1 Comment

Audiobook Length: 6 hours and 50 minutes

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Horror, Bizarro Fiction

Publisher: Doom Fiction

Published Date: September 11, 2021

Goodreads’ Synopsis: Della Comb is the queen of her hive. She’s only in her early twenties, but she’s already managed to build an empire selling drugs to junkies who are looking for the ultimate escape. The key to her success is that she manufactures her drugs with a secret ingredient: a very specific blend of pesticides.

Her only problem is the two bumbling exterminators she’s come to rely on for product. They spend more time playing video games and making armchair philosophies than actually working. Thankfully, they realize they too are short on supplies—pizza and breakfast burritos—so they give her a call, asking to meet up at the Chase High Rise, a building known for its unique brand of squalor.

Immediately, she feels sick to her stomach. Not only is the place absolutely disgusting, but it’s also home to Bill Krang, a man who claims to hear insects speaking. The things they say don’t make sense, even to him, but the words are causing him to physically deteriorate at a rapid pace.

Della’s ultimate fear is meeting this man and contracting his disease. However, business is business, and Krang’s apartment is abundant of product. Before long, she finds herself thrown straight into her worst nightmare, and the experience…changes her.

HEARERS OF THE CONSTANT HUM challenges its readers to work against instinct by exposing the dangers of our own curiosity. It’s more than just a story, it’s a warning of a much needed social change. We either take its advice, or risk rewriting what it means to be human in a world ran by insects.

Read Start Date: February 11, 2024

Read Finish Date: February 18, 2024

My Review: I received this audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Bill Krang, our protagonist, is a captivating mess. He’s plagued by the constant hum, a nonsensical insect chant that both drives him mad and fuels his bizarre investigation into the deeper meaning of the chant. As he gains knowledge about his situation and the world at large, his body begins to decay — to collapse. He lives alone in a dingy apartment filled with cockroaches when he meets Della and her exterminators.

This book is dark and weird, and I enjoyed the particularly unconventional and unsettling atmosphere. My skin crawled with Pauley’s description of the cockroaches. As always, Pauley’s prose is descriptive and draws the reader into the story. The characters are another highlight of this book. The exterminators are characters from another of Pauley’s books, The Brothers Crunk, which I have not read yet. I know what I’ll be reading next!

Connor Brannigan is, as always, a fantastic narrator.

I would highly recommend this book to people who like weird and/or bizarre horror fiction. If you are already a fan of Pauley’s books, this one won’t disappoint.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

BOOK REVIEW: Holly by Stephen King

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Audiobook Length: 15 hours and 24 minutes

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre:  Fiction, Horror, Thriller, Supernatural

Read Start Date: December 30, 2023

Read Finish Date: January 6, 2024

Goodreads’ Synopsis: Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.

Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.

Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.

My Review: The plot revolves around the disappearance of Bonnie Dahl, a teenage girl. Holly, despite being on leave and grappling with personal grief, agrees to take the case. As Holly investigates, she uncovers a series of unsettling disappearances in the seemingly peaceful town. The narrative switches between the past and present and between the POVs of Holly and the Harris’s. On Goodreads, this book is marked as the third book in the “Holly Gibney” series. I read and reviewed the first book, The Outsider, in 2019, and you can find the review here. I read the second book If it Bleeds, in 2020 and was on a reviewing hiatus then, so I did not review it. I have not read the Bill Hodges series yet.

This book is more or less a standalone book, although there were several references to the previous books, which I did not fully understand. Having read the other books 3-4 years ago respectively, I did not fully remember them. That being said, it wasn’t important to the main plot, so reading this book without first reading the others would not matter all that much.

I wouldn’t call this a mystery because you already know the “who-done-it” as the reader. The “why” of it all comes near the end of the book and was something that I wasn’t expecting. I thought the book was well-paced and had enough horror and suspense to keep me interested. Essentially, the book delivers a satisfying mystery with gradual reveals, unexpected twists, and a chilling atmosphere.

Holly is a complex and nuanced character. Despite being a germaphobe during a pandemic, having lost her mother (due to COVID-19), and having her business partner in the hospital (also with COVID-19), Holly is courageous and determined to stop these serial killers at all costs. I also enjoyed reading about the secondary characters and the subplots were interesting and carefully and masterfully interwoven into the main narrative.

The one criticism I have about the book is that I was not thrilled with the level that COVID-19 played in the story.

In 2020, I was living in Austria, so my experience with the pandemic was much different than that of Americans. In the book, every time people met, there was some discussion of COVID-19. Some characters shook hands, others bumped elbows. There was always some commentary about it, and it was obvious where each character stood on the issue. After the first few times, it honestly felt redundant and tedious. Was it really like that in America? Was everyone obsessed with COVID-19? Was it the first topic of conversation with every human interaction? Even in 2021, when the present-day portion of the book took place? While the inclusion of COVID-19 might have been true to the times, I do not feel it added anything to the story and could have been left out entirely. I get that sometimes art is true to life, but can we not just forget about COVID-19 for once?

Nevertheless, my feelings about this book are mainly positive and I would recommend this book to other fans of Stephen King, especially those who enjoy strong female protagonists and suspenseful mysteries.

NETGALLEY BOOK REVIEW: Automated Daydreaming by William Pauley III

/ E.A. Hoffmann / 1 Comment

Audiobook Length: 5 hours and 53 minutes

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Horror, Bizarro Fiction

Publisher: Doom Fiction

Published Date: November 14 ,2021

Goodreads’ Synopsis: This is a cycle. Unalleviated, its components are connected by electricity and fed through the rage of lightning. Insect and road monsters scour the desert. Bodies morph into new constructions, only partially human and searching for conclusion. Tongues entwine in an embrace of benthos, while mermaids and jellyfish glow in tandem. The moon is waiting. Dream.

Read Start Date: February 8, 2024

Read Finish Date: February 11, 2024

My Review: I received this audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Usually, I love Pauley’s books, and I have read nearly everything he has written. While I usually give Pauley’s books 5 stars, this one didn’t land as nicely as the others. Honestly, I think I was too triggered by this book. For example, there was one particularly graphic scene of rape with a truly “bizarro fiction” twist. It was too much. The writing was so vivid, and it was so disgusting that it literally turned my stomach.

The above being said, I am still giving this book 4 stars. Pauley is a master at description. It is what I love about his writing. Connor Brannigan returns as the narrator; his performance was as great as usual. Bricker Cablejuice (great character name) is immortal, and he is forced to live the lives of 5 other people through “automated daydreaming.” It was a little confusing how the lives intertwined as Cablejuice “switched between channels.” Each of the lives was very interesting and unique.

If you’re looking for a light and fluffy read, this is not the book for you. But if you’re interested in a dark, weird, vivid, and imaginative story, then Automated Daydreaming is definitely worth checking out. Just be prepared for some disturbing content.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.