Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker. If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of The Purple Booker.
This week my teaser comes from thriller, An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena which I received from NetGalley and read over the weekend. This was such a fantastic read. It’s that classic group of strangers trapped together with a killer on the loose story that I love. A little bit creepy, lots of tension and a few twists and turns to keep you guessing. Soooo good.
My Teaser
Hell isn’t imaginary; it’s real. It’s a real place and it’s also a state of mind. And she can feel herself slipping into the pit, she can feel the fear taking over, the paranoia, the need to react.
~ 69% An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena
Blurb
We can’t choose the strangers we meet.
As the guests arrive at beautiful, remote Mitchell’s Inn, they’re all looking forward to a relaxing weekend deep in the forest, miles from anywhere. They watch their fellow guests with interest, from a polite distance.
Usually we can avoid the people who make us nervous, make us afraid.
With a violent storm raging, the group finds itself completely cut off from the outside world. Nobody can get in – or out. And then the first body is found . . . and the horrifying truth comes to light. There’s a killer among them – and nowhere to run.
Until we find ourselves in a situation we can’t escape. Trapped.
On audio I’m still listening to Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. I have to confess I haven’t made much progress in the last week mostly because I lost my place when it started playing by itself on my phone. I have no idea how long it was going before I noticed (I keep headphones plugged in after similar issues with Call Me By Your Name) so I’m going to have to skim back and forward to figure out where I’d gotten to. I was enjoying it so I should probably just do it but I’m being a bit lazy.
Unfortunately progress with my reading plan then went completely off course when I discovered I could join Edinburgh libraries (because clearly I don’t have enough books and need to be a member of three county libraries) and got overly excited at their ebook collection. So many new releases I’ve been looking forward to (many holds have been put on) but also some older books that I’ve wanted to read forever but couldn’t justify buying. One of which was Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat. As soon as I saw it I had to read it and 24 hours later I’d finished both it and sequel Prince’s Gambit. Thankfully there’s a wait list for book 3 or I’m sure I would have finished it too.
So yeah I may have wandered off my reading plan over the weekend but I couldn’t resist picking up Circe by Madeline Miller and needless to say once I picked it up there was no way I was putting it down until I finished it. It is absolutely brilliant. It will definitely be making my list of favorite reads in 2018. I’ve always been fascinated by Greek mythology but had forgotten a lot of it. In Circe, the author really brings a lot of these stories to life and it actually feels like you’re living them. The character development is incredible and I loved how she made these Greek gods and heroes (Odysseus, Daedalus) so incredibly real and flawed. I am going to have to get my hands on a copy of The Song of Achilles as soon as possible.
I did enjoy this story but part of me wishes that I’d just bought it as an ebook rather than listening to it on audio. I can imagine it’s much better to just sit and immerse yourself in the story rather than dipping in and out every couple of days. It may just have been that I’ve been reading the original stories fairly recently but this reminded me a lot of Sherlock Holmes. One character in particular, Thomas Cresswell, seems to pretty much be Sherlock and a lot of his methods and character are absolutely identical. I did guess who Jack the Ripper was very early on (it was kinda obvious) but it was still a good read and I will no doubt read the next books in the series.
The third and final book finished this week was The Last Family in England which I’d received from NetGalley. I’m pretty sure this has been out for a while but it seems to be getting re released (probably due to the success of How to Stop Time). This was a very emotional read for me. I don’t think I would have requested this if I’d known just how upsetting this story would be. I love animals and tend to get more emotionally invested in them than I do in people so I generally avoid books about animals (even if I know they get a happy ending). It is however wonderfully written and contains so many keen insights and observations on the modern family and relationships. This was my first book by Haig and while I can’t say I “enjoyed” it (it was too sad for that). It has shown me how good his writing is.
After Ash Princess I couldn’t face another YA fantasy and having received a copy of Vox from NetGalley I couldn’t resist reading a few pages. Needless to say I ended up finishing the whole thing the same day. It’s an absolutely fascinating premise in that in this society women are only permitted to speak 100 words a day. Their role is to stay at home, cook, clean, garden and raise the children while their menfolk make the decisions, go out to work. It’s a little similar to Handmaid’s Tale but without the forced baby factory element. I very much enjoyed it. It’s not out till August so unfortunately too early for a review but I would recommend.
A Bookish Life 