It’s time again to ask ourselves the three W’s:
Would you live in an ultra-modern Internet of Things house?
What if all the walls there had eyes?
What if you were paid to live there?

Wait, no, that’s not right. We ask these three W’s:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.

   

In the Hall with the Knife by Diana Peterfreund
★★★★☆ || Goodreads
I’ve finished this, and the review is in progress, and I promise it will be filled with aaaaaall the Clue GIFs and then some. Ultimately, I thought this was a really cute book and an easy read, but it didn’t have quite the same charm as the movie. The biggest difference was that in the movie, anyone could be guilty, and that was sort of the point, but with so many point-of-view characters, it became kind of obvious who it wasn’t. I guessed the guilty party almost immediately, and a little while later, long before it was announced, I guessed their motive. So that was a bit disappointing. I also didn’t get really attached to any of the characters. They all felt, well, teenage drama-y, which is to be expected. I did really enjoy that there were some obvious parallels to be drawn between the personalities from the movie and the characters in the book. I enjoyed Scarlet’s hyper-competitiveness, and it made me giggle a bit. There are some really fun throwbacks to the movie, though, which I enjoyed. It ended up being just sort of a fun fluffy, nostalgic read, but I look forward to the next book.

Before I Disappear by Danielle Stinson
★★★★☆ || Goodreads
So many thanks to Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads for sending me this one!!! Once I started this, I just didn’t want to stop. It took a little bit to get into this, because it started a bit slow. Charlie is just so precious and deserves to be protected, and I just want to hug him. Rose was a really compelling main character. She was so strong and determined, but also broken and vulnerable, and I really enjoyed her. I thought the other characters were just … kind of okay? I felt like we didn’t really get to know any of the others particularly well enough. A lot of the science in this is based on string theory, which just … yikes. My eyes may have glazed over just a little bit. xD I felt like the build-up and atmosphere of this book was so strong that it kind of seemed to deflate at the end. It seemed rush and then ended and … I wasn’t done yet? There were still so many unanswered questions. Plus, Rose has a deep, dark, horrible secret … except that I guessed it, like, maybe a quarter of the way into the book, and we had totally different feelings about it. I wasn’t nearly as tore up about it as she was, so that made the big reveal a little … awkward. I was sort of like … yeah … so?

A Lush and Seething Hell by John Hornor Jacobs
Status: 39%

Click For Goodreads Summary

A brilliant mix of the psychological and supernatural, blending the acute insight of Roberto Bolaño and the eerie imagination of H. P. Lovecraft, The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky examines life in a South American dictatorship. Centered on the journal of a poet-in-exile and his failed attempts at translating a maddening text, it is told by a young woman trying to come to grips with a country that nearly devoured itself.

In My Heart Struck Sorrow, a librarian discovers a recording from the Deep South—which may be the musical stylings of the Devil himself.

Breathtaking and haunting, A Lush and Seething Hell is a terrifying and exhilarating journey into the darkness, an odyssey into the deepest reaches of ourselves that compels us to confront secrets best left hidden.

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I finished the first of two short stories, The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky. And it was … not good. I’m clearly in the minority here, because it has such rave reviews, but this one just didn’t work for me. First, I still don’t understand the title. It’s so beautiful, and it’s repeated several times through the story (once in Spanish even), but I’m still not sure what the heck it’s referring to.

What I will say is that when the creepy stuff comes in, it’s gooood. Jacobs sure can weave an atmosphere. My biggest qualm was that it takes foreverrrrr for something to really happen (like 20% into the book, and this short story ends at, like, 38%, soooo … it’s a lot). Then, when things start getting spooky and I’m really getting into it, things just … stop. There’s a detour in the narrative, where it’s bogged down. It’s like getting whiplash. I’m ready to go with the eeriness, but now we’re hearing about this woman traveling on a motorbike through the country and I just couldn’t care less.

There is SO MUCH DESCRIPTION in this. Not the sort that’s lush and builds a perfect image in my mind. No, when I say description, I mean quotidian things, describing menial things the character is doing that I really have no interest in. Speaking of which, I wasn’t a fan of the main character. She didn’t really feel like she had a personality. Avendano was a fun character, but he didn’t have a role in most of the story, unfortunately.

And the ending … was just … there. It just ended. I have no idea what happened in the last, like, 5% of the story. I was so completely lost, and it felt so rushed and I’m just … I’m confused, guys. Someone explain this story to me, because I feel like I just wasted my week with a really compelling build-up to a payoff that just never came.

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
Status: 69/336

Click For Goodreads Summary

When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.

What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.

Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant.

It was everything.

She knows she’s made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn’t always ideal. She’s not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty—at least not of murder. Which means someone else is.

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I’m going to be in the minority opinion of this one, too, it looks like, but I’m not in love with this one, either. I’m in love with the idea of it. It opens with the premise of someone wrongly accused of murder and a house where things aren’t quite what they seem, and the death of a child. Yes. Sign me up. I’m here for this.

Unfortunately, what follows is a bit of a slog so far. There’s not a whole lot of creepy that’s happened yet, and there’s nothing particularly endearing about the main character, Rowan. All she does is whine and complain about everything. When she’s not doing that, she’s lying and manipulating (neither of which I’m necessarily against, if the character’s compelling).

There’s a whole lot of nothing happening so far. Some hints that things are weird, but not much more than that. It’s got really high ratings, so I’m hoping this will pick up.

       

I have been absolutely dying to read The Library of the Unwritten, and since I’m a little late with it, I figure I should probably go ahead and actually do that. I’M SO READY FOR IT. This book sounds perfect and is one of my most anticipated this year, so pleeeease let it be good. *crosses fingers*

Soooo it’s no secret that math is my nemesis (and is obviously winning this war), but I make a concerted effort every year to read at least mathy book and try to keep up with math stuff. So Change is the Only Constant is my attempt at that! Honestly, this book sounded so interesting, and if it can keep me from falling asleep while learning math, I’ll consider it a win! That will be high praise, indeed.

I’m feeling all the spooky reads so far, and I’m ready for something with haunted buildings, please, so I decided to pick Nothing Hidden Ever Stays. It sounds really good, and I can’t wait to start it. I need some redeeming spooky reads after being disappointed this week, because I’m afraid I’m on the verge of a slump

Chat With Me

What are you reading this week? Anything you’d recommend? Link to your WWW posts below so I can visit you!