noellesmagicallibrary's reviews
322 reviews

I liked this narrator. She had a lovely tone to her voice and I could easily understand the Irish accent. 

The writing was OK but I didn’t always like the dialogue between the characters and the pacing felt slow at times. 
Overall it’s a pretty solid ghost story with HOD and queer representation. 

There’s too much sex for my personal tastes BUT I really loved these characters, including secondary/tertiary ones. Three weeks drinking and eating my way  through Europe sounds like a dream. 

What an adorable, kid-friendly graphic novel! Reading Penguin and Panda gave me all the warm-fuzzies.
The artwork is really cute and I loved some of the background characters (like the axolotl magician).

The short chapters will be easy for a young reader to get through and then think about the message in the story. The four stories are as follows:
1. Favorites: these two friends are different and that's awesome. Also, turtles aren't rocks.
2. The Carnival: it's easy to get over excited and sharing is cool.
3. The Bicycle: don't take something without permission and apologize when you do something wrong.
4. The Pet: love is love.

I just love these characters so much and I know a lot of young readers will as well. 

Historical fantasy is a genre I tend to really enjoy but something about this one didn't hit.
I was switching between audio and my physical copy and I think that was my down fall. I had a harder time following along with the audio because of the names and non-English words were unfamiliar to my ear. When I was physically reading the book, I found myself enjoying it more. 

The Spanish Inquisition isn't a time in history that I know much about and isn't a huge point of interest, so that too probably added to my trouble getting into the story. 

This is an amazing collection of short stories within the horror-genre. Many (possibly all?) of the stories featured queer characters. I can see myself going back to some of these stories again and again. 
I read this as part of a book tour and as such I was responsible for creating a playlist for the collection. Thinking about these stories remind me of certain songs made my reading experience even better. 

While I liked the entire collection, a few stand outs for me are Good Morning Georgia, Mirror Mirror and Smartmonster. 

Damn, this reminded me of how much joy I got from watching Buffy. 

Taking off 1/2 a point because I could have done without the dog/Anyanka/Anya storyline. I thought it was silly, even for this franchise. 
Also, I missed the OG Scooby Gang. But Indira is a lovely addition and *almost* filled the void Buffy left behind. 

This is basically Goosebumps for adults. I wouldn't say I was "scared" by the stories but they are definitely horrific and entertaining. 

Hair of the Dog: One guy would do anything to get rid of his drug addictions. Including, drinking an unknown liquid, coughing up a rock and fighting a demon-dog. 

The Thing in the Sink: Little Shop of Horrors meets a bachelor pad kitchen. 

Well that was dark. I loved it!
These short stories worked really well. They weren't too short that I was left wanting more, and they weren't too long either. My favorite of the bunch was the first one, "This Skin Was Once Mine". 

"Seedling" had elements of science fiction and body horror. Definitely shocked by the ending.
"All The Parts of You That Won't Burn Easily" takes second place for my favorite. It gave me the heebie-jeebies and I loved the twist. 
"Prickle".... DAMN. That ending was rough. 

Each story had a different narrator and I liked them all. They each fit their respective stories well. 

Too often we don’t get to see older women at the center of a horror story, so thank you Lisa. 

I wouldn’t call this one scary necessarily but it was eerie. And weird. These stories are always weird. 

Again, I was struck by some similarities to Doctor Who (which I love). This time it’s the sweeping Angels, one of the best episodes. Here there are creepy mannequins who transport you somewhere with their touch and stop moving when you look at them. 

Jenna is our main kid — she’s an 11 year old who loooves the outdoors. This summer she joins a scout group along with her bff Reese. Some really scary stuff happens while they’re camping with the rest of the group. After doing some research online, Jenna has convinced herself that she’s seen The Backcountry Beast, aka Bigfoot. 
Even though that’s a pretty scary thought, Jenna doesn’t let that stop her from returning to the woods to help her friend. This girl has guts!


I rarely finish books in one day but when you mix a  middle grade horror story with a lazy at-home Sunday taking care of a sick toddler then that’s exactly what you get. 

There’s a little bit of mixed media going on here with the addition of newspaper articles, blog pages and scout guidebooks. This was a fun way to break up the narrative and get important information. 
I loved the group of kids in the Owlet Scouts and Jenna’s growth throughout the story. 
Truly, the scenes with Bigfoot were creepy. I never want to run into that guy. 

I’m so so happy Reese was found in the end. I was getting sad thinking that she was lost forever (or dead)