Ani's Book Abyss: Halloween Bingo 2019 | Update #3 and Mid-game Book Rambles

Halloween Bingo 2019

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This post will be both, an update of my stats and progress, as well as a collection with some ramblings of all the books I've read for Halloween Bingo 2019 thus far. In other words, this will be a fairly long post to mark the mid-game point of Halloween Bingo.

At this time in the game, I've so far finished nine books, which is a little less than half of the books I need to read before the game is finished. I'm currently reading The Visitor by Amanda Stevens for the Grave or Graveyard square, and Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier for In the Dark, Dark Woods. Both books are quite long, so I may or may not be finishing these two books anytime soon. There is also always the possibility of starting a new book...

And also, I just realized that I'd somehow inserted the wrong bingo card as my unmarked card above, so this will be rectified starting today... I'll go back and change earlier update posts when I get a chance. This is what happens when you get lazy and simply do a lot of copying and pasting from old posts to new posts. I had gone back to last year's Halloween Bingo updates and did a copy and paste and apparently forgot to swap out for my 2019 card.

Ah well...

Meanwhile, I'm going to try my best to blackout my card, because it IS possible for me to read sixteen books in a month, but at my current pacing, I'm not sure that'll happen. My other option may be to pick up a couple short stories, though short stories have never truly been my thing. We'll play by ear, because I'm not entirely too concerned with getting a blacked out card, if I want to be honest with myself.

Updated Marked Card:

Read: Red-Eyes Penni
Called: Green Square Outline

Currently Reading:

Up Next:

Books Read and Unallocated:

TBA

Book Ramblings:

The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

Rating: 3.0 Stars

I can't say that I enjoyed this Sherlock Holmes story as much as I've enjoyed the very few others I've listened to previously. There wasn't much of a plot twist to the mystery, and dare I say, the story itself was a bit flat.

But there was a romance for Dr. Watson that irritated Sherlock, so that was something to giggle about. As with other classics, I don't really know how to review this save for the few sentences above, so I'm just going to leave it at that.

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee
The Epic Crush of Genie Lo #1

Rating: 3.5 Stars

I was delighted to find this book while searching for something to read for Diverse Voices. I don't know why I was so resistant to use a book by, say, Sherry Thomas, but I wanted to read something diverse written by someone diverse, and unfortunately, while Sherry Thomas is Chinese, she writes rather mainstream historical romances set in England. So even her Lady Sherlock series, a historical mystery, was something I was hesitant to pick up.

A book written by an Asian author based on a well-known, beloved Chinese legend was like dangling a carrot in my face. Journey to the West and anything Monkey King is such a widely known story in Asian culture, as well as something I grew up with, so I just couldn't resist the temptation. While it wasn't everything I had hoped and dreamed for, it was still entertaining. And you also get a very millennial-ish retelling of Journey to the West in the protagonist Genie Lo's voice, contained within two pages--quite intriguing if you don't already know the tale.

See my review:
Long Rambling Thoughts: The Epic Crush of Genie Lo

Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer

Rating: 4.0 Stars

My original intention was going to be to read Behold, Here's Poison by this same author, which is why I read Death in the Stocks before the start of Halloween Bingo. But then Footsteps in the Dark became available via library hold, and I found that it was a book in the Country House Mystery reading list, and the premise sounded much more interesting, what with a haunted house and all.

I'm not certain that this book felt like a Country House Mystery when all was said and done, but I'm not entirely an expert on mystery, so I'm simply going by the fact that it was on the list. I mean, well the book DOES take place at a country house... it just isn't really a closed circle mystery, truth be told.

I will willingly read Behold, Here's Poison, though if this is the case.

See my review:
Quick Thoughts: Footsteps in the Dark

Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire
InCryptid #3

Rating: 4.0 Stars

I'd been meaning to get back to the InCryptid world, and I figured that Halloween Bingo was a great reason to do so. It absolutely fits perfectly into the Monsters square, so there we have it.

This book wasn't as squee-worthy as the first two books, but I loved it nonetheless.

See my review:
Thoughts: Half-Off Ragnarok

Ice by Linda Howard

Rating: 4.0 Stars

Ice storm--check. Nighttime danger and suspense--check. I'm so happy I found this book, because this square was going to get Transfigured otherwise. I now have a bit more free room to use my Transfiguration cards as needed.

What can I say? Linda Howard is a go to author for some of my random Romantic Suspense needs. I enjoy some of her books, and I find some of them kind of bleh. This one was actually quite entertaining and suspenseful, so there is that.

See my review:
Fairly Brief Thoughts: Ice

Mercy Strange by Alisa Woods
Legal Magick #2

Rating: 3.0 Stars

I was originally going to read Sourcery by Terry Pratchett for this square, but on a whim I decided to read the next Legal Magick installation instead, since I DID very much enjoy the first book in the trilogy. I'm a little conflicted as to whether or not this was ultimately a good idea, because while the book was entertaining and easy to read, I didn't find it as enjoyable as I'd been hoping, which was disappointing.

Last year, I'd read Alisa Woods' River Pack Wolves trilogy and loved it as a guilty pleasure. The books weren't all that great, but they were so much fun and enjoyable that I loved them despite all the many glaring flaws and writing quibbles. The same could be said about Ever Strange, the first book in this series.

Unfortunately, somehow I couldn't really overlook the flaws in Mercy Strange, and while I breezed through the book and found it agreeable enough, a nagging sense in the back of my head kept telling me that this book was way too juvenile for the content matter and the target audience... as well as the characters. Mercy Strange is supposed to be some sort of genetics expert... but she often comes off acting like a teenager, which ended up making it really hard for me to take her seriously. And the love interest, Swift was kind of stereotypical and one-dimensional.

But whatever, I will be reading the last book, and maybe I'll like it, maybe I won't.

It was still entertaining. I'm probably not going to officially review this book by itself, so the last two paragraphs will probably be it.

Lost Among the Living by Simone St. James

Rating: 4.0 Stars

Another great historical ghost mystery by Simone St. James--a great haunted house mystery with a lot of unexpected twists. While things might have gotten a bit chaotic as the story progressed, I still very much enjoyed this one a lot.

See my review:
Brief Thoughts: Lost Among the Living

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
Truly Devious #1

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Maureen Johnson has a great sense of wit, and a quirky sense of humor, giving us fairly non-standard YA heroines that are fun to follow. Truly Devious was a cute little mystery, involving a young girl who dreams of becoming a great detective, with aspirations for joining the FBI. This book wasn't perfect, but it was quite entertaining.

See my review:
Thoughts: Truly Devious (link coming soon)

Firelight by Kristen Callihan
Darkest London #1

Rating: 3.0 Stars

This book wasn't really what I was expecting, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. When I was choosing for this square, I was mostly looking at Amanda Quick or Sherry Thomas, but happily decided to go with a series titled Darkest London, because, why not?

See my review:
Some Thoughts: Firelight (link coming soon)

Squares/Books/Called Dates/Update Post Links:

Progress on my card: 11 squares called || 9 books read || 6 squares completed


Called: 9/28/19 Read:	Called: Read:	Called: 9/26/19 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: 9/27/19 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: 9/17/19	Called: Read:

book by author	The Visitor by Amanda Stevens	book by author	Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson	book by author

~~~*~


Called: 9/17/19 Read: 9/29/19	Called: Read: 9/14/19	Called: 9/1/19 Read: 9/23/19	Called: 9/30/19 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	No Call or Free Space
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	Deadlands	10/24
09/25	Slasher Stories	10/25
09/26	In the Dark, Dark Woods	10/26
09/27	It was a Dark and Stormy Night	10/27
09/28	Paint It Black	10/28
09/29	Truly Terrifying	10/29
09/30	Locked Room Mystery	10/30
		10/31