I’m sharing another instalment of my Mini Review Mondays, the most recent of which was the other week. In case you haven’t seen any of my previous posts, I do ‘mini’ reviews of books that I’ve previously read and am now ready to share my full thoughts about.
First up, I’d like to talk about Gingerbread Bones by Lindsay Lovise. Thank you to Entangled Teen for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
When sixteen-year-old Georgie and her troublemaking brother are shipped off to the wilderness for their stepmother’s newest reality show, Georgie is convinced it’ll be the worst experience of her life. Two weeks. No phones. Hiking. Camping. And cameras catching every humiliating second.
Then she meets Mack Gray. Tattooed, unreadable, and—among a cast of kids already branded as trouble—he’s the one she’s sure is dangerous.
One night, the counselors are chanting affirmations around the fire. By morning, they’re gone.
But the kids are not alone.
Georgie can feel it, stalking them from the shadows—watching, waiting, picking them off one by one. Whatever it is, it isn’t just hunting.
It’s playing.
And in this game, there seems to be only one ending: no one gets out alive.
Publication Date: 6th August
CW: death, murder, body horror, gore, torture, fire, stalking, death of a child, grief, arson, injury, manipulation, mind control, possession
My Thoughts:
Gingerbread Bones gave me goosebumps. This is an extremely dark YA horror that delves into the evil of humanity and twists a familiar story through a new lens.
Lovise does not hold back, pulling you into the murk and filth of this story. It is a bloody and brutal book at times and also grapples with a lot of difficult subject matter so do check content warnings as needed. I really enjoyed how it discussed the effects of trauma reverberating through your life. This group of teenagers have all been through horrendous times and now are forced to fight for their lives. Right from the twisted reality TV set-up, you have empathy with them and this bizarre situation. The framing is fun with the various emails and messages being shown as part of the wider picture. You quickly get a sense of something dark lurking in the background but the rollercoaster you are about to embark on is one wild ride. The tension is sky-high and then things start going wrong in this creepy forest. It had strong Blair Witch vibes in the best way, but mixed with the strategic plays of Survivor or The Traitors. Of course, it is taken a step further here when actions start to have deadly consequences.
I really liked the way Lovise weaves in elements of myth and folktale, with an obvious allusion to Hansel and Gretel but plenty more in store. These help blur that line between fantasy and reality, taking the story into new territory where nothing is quite as it seems. That threat becomes infinitely more daunting and from there, things start getting even messier and murderous. This is a grim book at times with some sickening scenarios. These teenagers are carved out and made three-dimensional, which heightens the stakes even more as you have come to care for them. They are all hiding their own secrets but these are slowly unveiled and given context for you to understand how they have shaped them into the people they are today.
Gingerbread Bones is a chilling YA horror story that gets under your skin.
Next up, I’d like to talk about The Art of Getting Hammered by Joanna Wallace. Thank you to Viper Books for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
What use is a part-time serial killer who doesn’t want to kill people? Once the terror of rude and irritating people everywhere, now Claire has lost her murderous mojo. Not even the overly chatty woman in the supermarket or the man who stole her neighbour’s dog can motivate her to get out the zip ties.
Then a lucky break and a new job in the local pub gives Claire the perfect target: someone is spiking drinks and causing mayhem. But as Claire closes in on the culprit, punters start dropping like flies – and for once she’s not the one doing the killing. Is someone else murdering on her patch? Claire has questions. And she’s not afraid to use her hammer to get answers…
Publication Date: 6th August
CW: death, violence, murder, gore, injury, grief
My Thoughts:
The Art of Getting Hammered delivers cosy crime as you have never seen it before. This brilliant set-up delivers on its staggering concept to provide you with a tightly plotted thriller and an unforgettable protagonist.
You’d Look Better As a Ghost introduced me to the complex protagonist Claire and her unique moral code for navigating the world to put it very mildly. It was an acerbically witty and knowing nod with its depiction of a protagonist caught in the web of her own malice, always choosing to go further down the rabbit hole to balance her own scales of justice. This brings us back to her web of lies, secrets and death with another healthy dose of dark humour. The writing is sharp and skewering. In just a few lines, you have a great sense of each character and the type they fill. Wallace is careful to give them layers beyond this, though filtered through Claire’s malicious mindset. There is a genuinely great whodunnit at the core of this book that is so enjoyable because of the excellent characterisation.
Claire is in a rut, stagnant and unsure of her path in life. The presence of a shady character and another killer on her patch suddenly changes that. It is just such a darkly delicious concept and allows us back into this twisted headspace. I love how Wallace does not champion Claire but humanises her. You can understand her fractured logic and sense of justice through this altered view of the world, but you do not agree with it. The topics Wallace is discussing around the thin line between justice and vengeance speaks to an anger we all could hold within us, just threatening to tip out. Of course, we may channel that anger elsewhere or grapple with our issues, but Claire swings a hammer instead.
The Art of Getting Hammered reunites you with the compellingly complicated killer Claire as she dishes out her own brand of bloody retribution. It is a book that inhabits the morally grey, murky world we share.
Finally, I’d like to delve into A Healthy Appetite by Katie Huttlestone. Thank you to Dead Ink Press for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Hannah is dying for a cure.
After a decade subsumed by a cancer diagnosis, Hannah is now thirty, existing in a hinterland between life and death. Her boyfriend Scott has become more of a carer than a lover, and – with no job, no plans, and no more options – she has resigned herself to no future.
But then she’s given the opportunity to join phase one of a clinical trial that might just save her. Almost immediately, she feels different; that evening, her appetite returns. And it keeps growing…
Now Hannah is hungry for life.
A committed vegetarian, Hannah suddenly finds herself craving meat – but her new hunger isn’t limited to food. Now she wants everything. As new and suppressed desires surface she becomes reckless, destructive, and deceitful. It’s the miracle drug she’s been waiting for, but at what cost?
Publication Date: 13th August
CW: death, terminal illness, cancer, medical treatment, body horror, fertility issues
My Thoughts:
A Healthy Appetite deserves the world with a fascinating new voice and stellar characterisation that pulls you into the pages.
Katie Huttlestone is an exciting new voice and one I hope we get to hear plenty more from. This is weird girl fiction with the dial cranked up to eleven and a fascinating way of exploring chronic illness, particuarly the societal reaction and endless cycles of treatments.
There have been some amazing books centred around the idea of consumption recently and specifically how this intersects with critiques of women’s appetites, be that for passion, hunger or ambition. This debut adds a new element to this complex conversation by explicitly linking it to the lived experience of chronic illness and disability. There is a dehumanisation that can often occur that reduces people to their pain, their illness and their ‘struggle’. This book pushes back against this flattening by centring Hannah, who is a ferocious character determined to survive. Her life has been irrevocably changed by her diagnosis, placing her in a liminal state between life and death. It is controlled by endless drug regimes, pain and an utter loss of control.
She is a brilliant protagonist with a voice that will sear you and stay with you long after the final page. This comes from that pulsating anger at the world, her situation and the helplessness she often feels. However she is also deeply loving and caring, funny, smart and observant. Huttlestone imbues her with nuance and the characterisation shines, pulling you into this increasingly bizarre tale. There is a sense of honesty that can only be gained through lived experience and it adds a grit to the story that makes it feel even more real.
A Healthy Appetite discusses difficult topics through a very interesting lens with a story that lingers with you for weeks after the final page.
A Short Book Lover 
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