Saturday, September 28, 2019

Brief Thoughts: Lost Among the Living

Lost Among the Living

by Simone St. James

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  4.0 Stars

England, 1921.  Three years after her husband, Alex, disappeared, shot down over Germany, Jo Manders still mourns his loss.  Working as a paid companion to Alex's wealthy, condescending aunt, Dottie Forsyth, Jo travels to the family’s estate in the Sussex countryside.  But there is much she never knew about her husband’s origins… and the revelation of a mysterious death in the Forsyths’ past is just the beginning…

All is not well at Wych Elm House.  Dottie's husband is distant, and her son was grievously injured in the war.  Footsteps follow Jo down empty halls, and items in her bedroom are eerily rearranged.  The locals say the family is cursed, and that a ghost in the woods has never rested.  And when Jo discovers her husband’s darkest secrets, she wonders if she ever really knew him.  Isolated in a place of deception and grief, she must find the truth or lose herself forever.

And then a familiar stranger arrives at Wych Elm House…


There was a lot going on in this book, but I found myself really loving it.  Between the atmosphere and the haunted house premise, as well as Jo's character, this is probably my second favorite of Simone St. James's books I've read.  Of course, when we got into a lot of the pre- and post- Great War tangents, as well as the big surprise twist in the end, the story might have started untangling a little bit.

And the truth is, I saw the plot point concerning the mystery behind Alex's disappearance from ten miles away.  It was pretty obvious so I wasn't so surprised when the big surprise twist came around.  Hopefully, I've given nothing away, but, again, it was pretty obvious from the beginning where St. James was going with her story.

If it's one thing that St. James seems able to do, it's create appropriately creepy atmospheres involving all the hauntings depicted in her books.  Truth, I felt a very big chill go through me in the beginning, when Jo first arrives at Wych Elm House, and sees the girl sitting silently in the parlor.  Something about the way that scene was described was so vivid that I couldn't help seeing it in my own mind and being dutifully freaked out.  A lot of the other later scenes, such as when Jo sees the ghost girl Frances walk past her bedroom door out of the corner of her eye was also a great scary, and atmospheric moment.

Or maybe I'm just easily scared.

Jo's story was a good one, with a wonderfully strong starting point, but I feel like the characters' directions kind of got lost when more plot devices started getting added to the book.  So this book wasn't entirely perfect, but it was entertaining enough that I really, really liked it.

Halloween Bingo 2019


Monday, September 23, 2019

Halloween Bingo 2019 | Update #2


Halloween Bingo 2019


I'm not entirely sure how often I'm going to update, so I'm just going to wing it as I go.  Reading has been slow going and I think I've only finished two more books since the last update, a little over a week ago.  It's not bad progress, but I'd been hoping to have at least one other book finished reading by now.

I've decided to go ahead and declare a couple Transfigurations: (and I will move these graphics to the proper section in future updates)



Modern Noir and Magical Realism are the two squares I'm feeling the least interested in reading for at present, and I've felt the least interested in reading them since the beginning of the game.  I have books lined up for the squares I'm transfiguring them to already, so I'm going to go ahead and make this commitment, even though I haven't actually read for those squares yet.


Mainly, I just wanted Dark Academia on my card, because it's my favorite of all the newest Halloween Bingo squares--and, oh look at that, the square just got called!  I swear, I started putting this post together before today's (9/23) call.  I'm planning on reading the second book in the Truly Devious trilogy since I'm enjoying the first book right now.

Meanwhile, I should hopefully be getting the next InCryptid book via library hold soon, so I'm going to go ahead and put Cryptozoologist onto my card.

Moving along with this update, I've just recently finished reading Mercy Strange by Alisa Woods for Spellbound.  I know I'd intended to read Terry Pratchett's Sourcery... but plans change.  That is all.

The next book I finished was Lost Among the Living for the Ghost Stories square.

And while I'm currently reading Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson for the Baker Street Irregulars square, I felt like I needed to read some more romance of some sort, so I decided to go ahead with Firelight by Kristen Callihan for Darkest London.  Yes, I know, I've already read at least three other books that have romance... I just need more.  For me.

Anyway, I'm sort of picking and choosing which books to read next based on which ones are library books and which ones are for squares on my card that have already been called.

So you see, there's a somewhat strategy going on... not really, but maybe.  No.  Not really.  There is no strategy.

Anyway, I went ahead and added some graphic to my card to indicate the Transfigurations, which I hadn't been quite sure how I wanted to do it, but I kind of like the effect... for now.  When Penni gets added to the square, we'll figure something else out.


Updated Marked Card:




Read: Red-Eyes Penni
Called: Green Square Outline


Currently Reading:




Up Next:




Books Read and Unallocated:


TBA


Squares/Books/Called Dates/Update Post Links:


Progress on my card:  7 squares called || 7 books read || 3 squares completed



Called:
Read:
Called:
Read:
Called:
Read:
Called: 9/22/19
Read: 9/19/19
Called:
Read:
A Study in Death
by

Anna Lee Huber
book
by

author
Dreamer's Pool
by

Juliet Marillier
Mercy Strange
by

Alisa Woods
Thornyhold
by

Mary Stewart
~*~*~*~
Called: 9/20/19
Read:
Called:
Read:
Called:
Read: 9/15/19
Called: 9/13/19
Read: 9/11/19
Called: 9/23/19
Read:
book
by

author
The Broken Girls
by

Simone St. James
Ice
by

Linda Howard
Footsteps in the
Dark
by
Georgette Heyer
The Vanishing Stair
by

Maureen Johnson



~*~*~*~
Called:
Read:
Called:
Read:
Called:
Read:
Called:
Read:
Called:
Read:
book
by

author
The Visitor
by

Amanda Stevens
book
by

author
Truly Devious
by

Maureen Johnson
book
by

author
~*~*~*~
Called:
Read:
Called:
Read: 9/14/19
Called: 9/1/19
Read: 9/23/19
Called:
Read: 9/1/19
Called: 9/4/19
Read:
Firelight
by

Kristen Callihan
Half-Off Ragnarok
by
Seanan McGuire
Lost Among the
Living
by

Simone St. James
The Sign of
the Four
by
Arthur Conan
Doyle
book
by

author
~*~*~*~
Called:
Read: 9/2/19
Called:
Read:
Called:
Read:
Called:
Read:
Called:
Read:
The Epic Crush
of Genie Lo
by

F.C. Yee
book
by

author
Pocket Apocalypse
by

Seanan McGuire
book
by

author
book
by

author



Daily Calls

Date Square Date Square
09/01 Ghost Stories 10/01
09/02 Genre: Horror 10/02
09/03 Creepy Crawlies 10/03
09/04 Amateur Sleuth 10/04
09/05 American Horror Story 10/05
09/06 Dystopian Hellscape 10/06
09/07 Fear Street 10/07
09/08 Black Cat 10/08
09/09 Relics and Curiosities 10/09
09/10 A Grimm Tale 10/10
09/11 Stranger Things 10/11
09/12 Creepy Carnivals 10/12
09/13 Country House Mystery 10/13
09/14 Classic Horror 10/14
09/15 Supernatural 10/15
09/16 Psych 10/16
09/17 Darkest London 10/17
09/18 Cozy Mystery 10/18
09/19 Southern Gothic 10/19
09/20 Read by Flashlight or Candlelight 10/20
09/21 Modern Noir 10/21
09/22 Spellbound 10/22
09/23 Dark Academia 10/23
09/24 10/24
09/25 10/25
09/26 10/26
09/27 10/27
09/28 10/28
09/29 10/29
09/30 10/30

10/31

Transfiguration Spell:



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