summary: a collection of poems, including themes of love/hate relationships, hating yourself, vulnerability, past relationships, fame, falling in love, bad days, and many more.
opinion: this collection of poetry has changed me and the way i think of myself. halsey's poetry is brutally honest with no filter, and seeps with emotion. i have been re-reading this book since i got it last year! if you want to go on an emotional roller coaster and realize things about yourself that you never would've before i suggest reading this book. there are also some parts you will find in the book that she used for her songs, and it's pretty cool to see where she got her lyrics. though every line touches me in some way, i would say my favorite pieces of poetry would be "Introduction", "I Want To Be A Writer!", "Summer Fruit", "Layers", "I Met A Mind Reader.", "The Professional", "Virus", "Eight", "Lighthouse", "The Painter", "Laundromat", "Fun Girl", "A Story Like Mine", "Smoke", "Devil In Me", and "Seventeen". as you can tell, i like a lot of her poems haha.
star rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 5/5
summary: the story is set in a victorian era and follows the story of children with special abilities related to death. employees of the mysterious cairndale institute race against a man working with a supernatural creature from the dead to find these children and bring them to safety.
opinion: this is an amazing novel that creates a gothic, mysterious alternate timeline that reshapes and defines horror while still honoring the original aspects of it. the characters voice powerful stories and tragedies, and it's like you get to know each one of them personally. i got it the same year it had been published, when barely anybody had read it yet. i still see that it doesn't get as much recognition as it should. an absolute hidden gem!
star rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 5/5
summary: an anthology of folk horror. includes stories of ghosts, haunted places, an old island, petrified trees, and a town cursed with fire.
opinion: most of the short stories were pretty messy and honestly half baked. some however did achieve that satisfactory feeling of terror and dread! my favorites ought to be Stay by Erica Waters, It Stays With You by Aden Polydoros, and Truth or Dare by Alex Brown. Stay had that perfect gloomy town, creepy cemetary feel, and the character's toxic devotion to her dead loved ones struck a chord with me. i think i actually cried with that one lol. It Stays With You creates a perfect and horrifying twist on bloody mary, creating a fever dream of nightmares to haunt you when you go to bed. finally, Truth or Dare was an incredibly original and eerie creation, while still honoring the classic aspects of folk horror. some of the other stories were not able to fit in with that theme however, or do well with it. i would definetely not suggest The Tallest Poppy by Chloe Gong, Loved By All, Save One by Tori Bovalino, and Petrified by Olivia Chadha. The Tallest Poppy was very confusing and weird, especially the random connection with the character and the ocean. i didn't find any significance in that part with her character. it was also pretty disappointing because i have heard good praise from the author. Loved By All, Saved One seems honestly pretty basic to me. the plot was very predictable and it was also pretty dissapointing because the author was the editor of the whole anthology. finally, the writing style in Petrified seemed clumsy and unnatural. the idea of the story was interesting and cool, but the way the author executed it was unsatisfactory. there was this one story that did not seem to fit the folk horror theme at all but i still found a good read. it was The Burning One by Shakira Toussaint, and it's unique style and historical refrences i found interesting. she writes it purposefully in broken english because that is not the character's first language, and uses it to leave us vague clues leaving us wondering and interpreting what the character must've meant. the backstory is very tragic and uniquely written, and while it is not my favorite i still want to respect it for it's creativeness in plot and writing style. as you can tell i have a lot to say on this book haha!
star rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ 3/5
summary: a girl who's been bullied her whole life has her last straw pulled. two kids decide to do the final prank, but unbeknownst to them, their victim holds a terrifying power. a power that could destroy everything that hurt her.
opinion: one of my favorite books ever. as the first book stephen king ever published, it is horrifying, eye opening, and a massive explosion for a debut book. this definetely set the standards for many more of the hit classics to come. the absolutely disgusting and horrible tricks played on carrie provide it's own horror, the type that makes you sick because you know it happens in real life. and as you all know he hits straight home with his eerie psychological horror. there is this one scene where carrie has a nightmare of Jesus and while it is really only one or two sentences long the idea of it puts a deep pit of dread into my stomach. i have heard some people criticize it for putting a bad face on God, but i think all the religious trauma carrie experienced was because of her mom's radical behavior, not God himself. it was really her mom's corrupted and abusive way of using religion, because God wouldn't have ever standed for that. anyways, stephen king also did an amazing job (as ever) creating such sick and psychotic characters, for example billy and carrie's mother. um actually lets talk completely about billy's character for a second. when he is introduced via sue snell and a few of the fictional books written about prom night, he is depicted as your normal slightly dumb teenage boy. he is also described as kind of chris's "henchman", or basically the dude that does whatever she does. however later in the book chris' perspective and his perspective reveals the sadistic and toxic person that he was, and that even he was really the prominent force in the horrible prank that was played on carrie, causing her to destroy the town. there was this part of the book where they describe how chris would ignore the red flags of her boyfriend's behavior, and they talked about how he would run over stray dogs on the street. it was absolutely nasty. and then there is chris hargensen and how much i hate her. she basically got r@p3d by him and still asked him if she could travel with him. like are you not just paying attention to the fact that he slapped you to the floor literally a few seconds ago? as you can tell i am very passionate about the book haha. and omg the part where all the parents get electrocuted on the street is insane, like stephen king i did not need to know about the smell of cooking human flesh but ok. to summarize, you need to read this book. you just need to.
star rating:☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 5/5