Blogtober Day 1: Spooky TBR

Happy Blogtober Everyone!

October is (unsurprisingly) when I read the most scary stories. Even in years when I choose not to read horror novels specifically, it's still the month when I read more stories about ghosts and witches and goblins. It's unsurprising, then, that my TBR for this month consists mostly of horror stories and other Halloween-y type books. I also tend to read a lot more anthologies in October for some reason, so there are a few books on this list that are collections of short stories.



A Secret History of Witches by Louisa Morgan. The description on Amazon is as follows:

"Brittany, 1821. After Grand-mère Ursule gives her life to save her family, their magic seems to die with her.

Even so, the Orchires fight to keep the old ways alive, practicing half-remembered spells and arcane rites in hopes of a revival. And when their youngest daughter comes of age, magic flows anew.

The lineage continues, though new generations struggle not only to master their power, but also to keep it hidden.

But when World War II looms on the horizon, magic is needed more urgently than ever - not for simple potions or visions, but to change the entire course of history."

The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2018 Edition edited by Paula Guran

This is an anthology of, as the name says, dark fantasy and horror. The 2019 edition won't be released until November, so I've been saving the 2018 one for this year. I like short scary stories, partly because of my love for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark from when I was a kid and partly because I sometimes find fully length horror novels a little boring.

Nightmare Escapade: A Horror Anthology by Waylon Piercy

At some point, everyone fears the dark, and the things that lurk within it! 
In these eight stories, people are forced to confront their personal horrors, and no one emerges unscathed. 
The little boy who is convinced that something sinister stalks him...
The weary soldier who runs afoul of a terrifying stranger...
The man whose vacation is disturbed in a most unwelcome fashion.... 
The former cop who finds himself caught up in the search for a missing child...
The young woman who finds herself trapped in a dark cellar following a tornado...
These people, and others, each embark on their own dark journeys within these pages. Join them, won't you? 



The Scarred God by Neil Beynon

Anya longs to follow in the fabled footsteps of her warrior grandmother. But when the forces of the corrupt Scarred God raid her village, she fears she doesn’t have the stomach to wield the cold steel. Captured, her only path of escape is to commit an unthinkable act of bloodshed…

Guilt-ridden over her first kill, Anya vows to rescue those still held for sacrificial slaughter. But before she can set the captives free, she must survive a bewitched forest by tying her fate to its shadowy guardian. To defeat the Scarred God, the unlikely pair seek a rival deity whose twisted motives could lead to the realm’s liberation… or its doom.

Can Anya unleash her inner hero before the vengeful gods destroy the world she loves?


I'm not sure if the last one really fits with the theme of the others, but the premise does intrigue me and I'm hoping to read it sometime this month.

Those are my TBRs for October. What are yours?

The Mechanoid Cries Within

The Mechanoid Cries Within is a 2019 science fiction novelette by Brock T.I. Penner. The cover art was done by Pete Linforth. It was independently published by the author on September 4, 2019. The Mechanoid Cries Within is available for free by signing up for the author’s newsletter. The plot synopsis is as follows:

"RJ-A4A, a sentient and once free mechanoid finds himself kidnapped and sold into slavery to a wrathful owner, Davis. Surrounded by a wasteland of razorsand and rednecks who would torture him with glad, he spends his days toiling on Davis’s farm. RJ develops a bond with Davis’s lonely son, Lucien and his human-appearing mechanoid caretaker, AN. Out of desperation, he concocts a plan to escape the farm, the planet and slavery itself. All it would take is to manipulate AN and the boy into doing what he wants."

I found the premise of the story very interesting when it was first brought to my attention. Robots, androids and cyborgs in science fiction are nothing new, but very rarely do we see sci-fi stories being told from the robot’s perspective. Usually, the perspective comes from either humans, or an alien race substituting for humans, and robots are either side characters, happy to serve humanity, or villains trying to end humanity. Very few stories show the robot’s perspective or depict a nuanced view of humanity from said robot. RJ doesn’t hate humanity, he doesn’t want to wipe humanity out or enslave them, he just wants to be free. He wants his freedom and for his intelligence to be acknowledged as more than just lines of computer code.

The Mechanoid Cries Within is a story with a lot of potential. The premise is interesting, the three core characters, RJ, AN and Lucien, are compelling. I also enjoyed the smaller-scale story being told. The setting is contained solely to Davis’s farm, the stakes are, by all accounts, very low but the conflict makes it feel bigger. While there’s a lot of potential, the execution is fairly average. I found it difficult to follow in some places, needing to go back and reread to understand what was going on. I think this issue comes from there not being a clear separation between past and present. The story is mostly framed as RJ being forced to retell the story of something that happened, which makes the transition back and forth a little jarring. I feel like there are elements that would work better if the story was a little bit longer and more fleshed out. The word count is roughly 9,500 words, which is a very low word count for a completed story.

The Mechanoid Cries Within is a story I’d recommend it to a science fiction fan, looking for something quick to read.

Rating: 3.4 stars

The Woman In Cabin 10

Source: Amazon

The Woman In Cabin 10 is a 2016 thriller written by Ruth Ware. It was published by Scout Press, a division Simon & Schuster. The novel was a New York Times Bestseller and was named one of the best mystery books of 2016 by The Washington Post.

The premise of the novel is as follows. Lo Blacklock, a journalist for a travel magazine, is given a long-awaited, potentially life-changing assignment. A week on a small luxury cruise vessel through Norway. At first, the trip seems like a dream come true, but as the week continues, Lo witnesses something terrifying: a woman being thrown overboard. The only problem is that all the passengers remain accounted for, and the ship continues on its journey as if nothing happened. Lo then tries desperately to convince someone, anyone, that something is amiss.

The story starts off slow at first. The book opens with Lo being the victim of a burglary, and around thirty pages are dedicated to her having that experience, getting her locks changed, replacing a few of the stolen items and feeling traumatized about a man breaking into her house. Since the robbery winds up being significant later, I understand having that be the opening of the story. However, I personally felt like the sections about her buying a new phone and getting her locks fixed weren’t needed. Those details had no real significance to the plot and felt like unneeded filler.

Eventually, though, Lo goes off on her cruise where the main plot begins. A successful businessman married to a wealthy philanthropist has decided to start his own, exclusive luxury cruiseline to see the Northern Lights. She, along with other journalists and a few investors, are invited on the maiden voyage in a bid to earn good publicity and raise interest in the experience. She has a brief, random encounter with the woman in the cabin next to hers, number 10. She doesn’t see the woman at dinner later, and when she hears a body being thrown overboard, assumes the worst. Soon after, she’s informed that the cabin next to her was empty and no one, guest or staff, is unaccounted for. The bulk of the novel consists of Lo trying to figure out what happened and prove that the cabin was occupied and the woman did go missing to anyone who’d listen.

The mystery did intrigue me at the beginning. Was the woman a stowaway? Did Lo see what she thought she saw? Was this part of some conspiracy? How could a body have been thrown overboard and no one be missing? Those questions all occurred to me as I read. I became even more curious as, bit by bit, all the evidence she has either goes missing or is destroyed. It begins to look like this whole thing is a big cover-up.

My curiosity was diminished once lo really starts investigating. Her “investigation” consists of talking to the staff, asking them the same basic questions and receiving the same answers. For some reason, she doesn’t think to talk to more than one or two other guests, and when she does talk to them, she tries to be sneaky about it and ends up not asking anything relevant or likely to get results. The whole investigation part is pretty boring and repetitive. I still wanted to know what happened, but the story dragged on during this part.

All of my suspense went away once she finds herself captive and at the mercy of someone responsible for the mystery. I stopped being anxious, and started getting confused. There was a death, but it wasn’t who she thought. There isn’t one person acting alone on the ship. The death being covered up really doesn’t need to be. The “bad guy’s” plan doesn’t really make sense once its all explained. Once she works out what happened, the rest of the novel consists of Lo trying to figure out a way to get away from her captor and somehow reveal what really happened. Of course, those attempts are somewhat thwarted by finding herself in an unfamiliar place and not knowing who can and can’t be trusted.

I can’t really go any further in this review without discussing Lo herself. Lo, or Laura, isn’t a likeable character. Even before she stumbles upon this mystery, she’s rude to people she’s never met before, even ruder to her own boyfriend and a little conceited. On top of that, she’s somewhat of an unreliable narrator. She suffers from anxiety, due to the burglary, and takes medication for another condition, Unfortunately, her mental state makes her unreliable, and its even remarked on in the story that her medication, combined with alcohol, could have side-effects, leading a character to dismiss her. Her behavior is wildly erratic as well, since she goes from being livid at her ex-boyfriend, who’s on the trip because the story needed more drama I guess, to apologizing to him for reacting sensibly to something he does to her.

To be honest, I found this book to be fairly average. It has exciting moments, interspersed with stretches where it drags on. As stated earlier, I found the emphasis on the burglary to be a bit excessive and unneeded. It also irked me that the argument made, by a crew member, that everything was fine and Lo hadn’t seen a murder, was that she was projecting about the burglary. Later, he brought up that she was on medication and she maybe saw or heard something that wasn’t there as a result of that. The trope of “Character has mental illness, is therefore crazy and not to be believed by other characters” is insulting and I hate having to read it.

Overall, it’s an okay book. The mystery had potential for an interesting reveal or twist, but instead it followed the same plot as other stories with a few details changed. I wanted to like it, but there were too many moments when I got annoyed at the story itself, rolled my eyes and pushed through to finish the book. There was a lot of potential here, and Ware has been clearly inspired by Agatha Christie’s novels, but the potential hasn’t been realized. It’s a good book if you need something to read on a flight or a train.

Rating: 2.3 stars

Liebster Award Nomination

WHAT IS THE LIEBSTER AWARD?

The Liebster Award is a peer recognition award for up and coming bloggers, and the rules are as follows:

1)Thank the blogger who nominated you.

2)Answer the questions from the person who nominated you.

3)Nominate 5-11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

4)Tell your nominees through social media.

5)Ask 11 new questions for your nominees.

Millennial Book Review is on its third month now. It's an honor to be nominated for this award! I will use this nomination to support other new bloggers out there!

I'd like to thank Chocoviv at https://chocoviv.home.blog/ for nominating me for this award.

Chocoviv's Questions

Where did you last travel to?

Avon, North Carolina

Pumpkin spice latte or plain coffee?

Plain coffee, I'm a simple girl.

When did you start your blog?

End of July of 2019

Who is your favourite superhero?

Green Arrow, hands down.

If you could meet anyone famous, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

J.R.R. Tolkien (I am a nerd, I know that). And I'd want to thank him for writing such amazing works.

Savoury or sweet?

Sweet, definitely

What is the last book that you have read?

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

What is the last movie that you have watched?

Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse

Movie theatre or home theatre?

Home Theater

Favourite colour?

Royal blue.

Do you prefer to travel by plane or cruise ship?

Plane since I've never been on a cruise ship before.

My Nominees:

https://edilchristian.wordpress.com/

https://kariblogsonline.com/

https://inherthoughtszw.blogspot.com/

https://thedanishnomads.com/

https://nilyme.wordpress.com/



My Questions:

Chocolatey or Fruity?
If you could travel anywhere, where would it be and why?
Favorite movie of all time?
What's your favorite holiday?
If you were a superhero, what would your power be?
Favorite pasttime?
If you had to be dropped into one fictional world, which one would you choose?
Dogs or cats?
What's your secret talent?
What's one thing you've always wanted to learn how to do?
What trend do you wish would just go away?

Top 5 High Fantasy Series

Despite the fact that, at time of writing, most of my reviews are for some form of thriller, thriller actually is not my favorite literary genre. Fantasy, more specifically high-fantasy, is my favorite genre to read. Given that I needed a bit of a break from reviews for a little bit, I’ve decided to write about my five favorite high fantasy series.

By definition, high fantasy is defined as fantasy fiction set primarily in an alternative, entirely fictional world, rather than the real world. The fictional world is usually internally consistent but its rules differ in some way from those of the real world. Low fantasy, by contrast, takes place in the real world but has the inclusion of magical elements. The Mortal Instruments series is low fantasy; The Hobbit is high fantasy.

5) Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

The novels, beginning with A Wizard of Earthsea, take place in a world that is mostly ocean with humanity living on small islands. The world is inhabited by humans and dragons, with some humans being wizards or sorcerers. Unlike the other series on this list, humans and dragons are the only notable species that live in this world.

The first novel begins with a young boy, known as Duny but later named Ged, learning he has innate magical power. His aunt teaches him the little magic she knows, and one exhibition of his power gains the attention of a powerful mage. Unfortunately, Ged inadvertently releases a shadow creature. The rest of the novel follows Ged as he attempts to get ride of the creature plaguing him.

Earthsea is unique from two standpoints. One is the shifting of perspectives. There isn’t one protagonist across the series, unlike most book series. Characters from later books interact and meet characters from earlier novels, but the story isn’t focused on Ged and Ged alone. The second aspect that I feel makes Earthsea unique is its central theme about balance. Wizards in this world are meant to keep balance between the magical forces. Bad things don’t necessarily happen because someone evil causes it, they happen because they go against the balance that needs to be maintained. When I read this series, I found the concept of good and evil being more about choice than innate nature intriguing.

4) The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini

I wasn’t aware of this series existence until the first two books, Eragon and Eldest had already been released. I read those two very quickly and eagerly awaiting the third novel Brisingr and later the fourth and final book Inheritance.

Taking place in the fictional world of Alagaesia, it chronicles the tale of a farmboy Eragon, who finds a dragon egg while hunting and becomes the first Dragon Rider since the evil king Galbatorix killed all the others one hundred years earlier. Eragon is then swept up a journey to end the evil king’s reign and restore the order of Dragon Riders.

The Inheritance Cycle has a lot of similarities with, and clearly the author was inspired by, older works, most notably J.R.R. Tolkien’s works. Alagaesia and many of its inhabitants are similar to Middle Earth and the different races of beings that live there. While the worlds may be the same, the plots differ quite bit. Eragon’s journey isn’t about defeating an ultimate evil, its about overthrowing a corrupt leader. The conflicts between the protagonists and antagonists in Eragon and the other novels in the series, begin on a more personal level than most fantasy novels.

3) The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Some of you may believe this entry is cheating, since each book in the series starts with the main characters in the real world. However, given that the entirety of each book’s action and plot take place in the fictional land of Narnia, I’ve decided to include it.

The Chronicles of Narnia was actually the first high-fantasy series I read. A great deal of my love for it is no doubt a result of nostalgia from my childhood. These books will always hold a special place in my heart for being my introduction to fantasy as a genre. The allegories between events in Narnia and Christian theology are a lot more obvious as an adult, and Lewis has been criticized for some harmful stereotypes others have noticed in the novels, but this piece is neither the time nor the place to discuss that.

The world is expansive. There are different creatures throughout the world. There are humans, talking animals, minotaurs, sprites, and dozens of others. Magic exists in Narnia and the rules within the world are easy to understand and they stay consistent throughout There is the essential battle between Good and Evil, in various forms, throughout the series.

2) A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

I think we all knew this one was going to be on here. No discussion about fantasy is complete anymore without mentioning A Song of Ice and Fire due to the popularity of Game of Thrones. (Just as an aside, I will only be discussing Martin’s novels here, and not any events from the television series). I’m not sure what I can say about Westeros that hasn’t already been said, but here we go.

Martin gives the reader a rich, expansive world with hundreds of unique characters. Of all of the fantasy worlds mentioned in this piece, Martin’s uses magic the least often. Magic does exist, but it only seems to come up in certain situations and can only be performed by certain characters. A Song of Ice and Fire first gained popularity due to how shockingly events played out. No characters are safe, anyone can be killed, which went against the common trope in fantasy that the protagonist wouldn’t and couldn’t get killed, regardless of how dangerous of a situation they found themselves in. The series popularity stems from the world, but mostly in Martin’s ability to shock readers and avoid tropes of the fantasy genre.

Another thing worth noting is that, outside of the threat of the Others/White Walkers, there isn’t a main villain or some greater evil that needs to be defeated. There are plenty of “bad guys” but outside of the Others, they’re all ordinary people. While a lot of the world is clearly inspired by Tolkien’s work, including some character archetypes, the themes of the novels center around human conflict as opposed to the battle between good and evil.

1)The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

I really don’t think there was ever another option for my favorite fantasy series. While I have read all of these series more than once, The Lord of the Rings is the one I read the most often. Tolkien is the father of modern fantasy. Many of the tropes, themes and aspects of other fantasy worlds are based on, or at least inspired by, Tolkien’s works. Any discussion about lore and world-building would be incomplete without mentioning how much time, effort and thought went into creating the world of The Lord of the Rings. He created multiple constructed languages, and created multiple dialects each language. Middle Earth doesn’t just have a very long history going back thousands of years, it has its own creation myth.

But enough about how in-depth the lore goes, or how much effort and detail Tolkien put into his works. Let’s talk about the works themselves. The Lord of the Rings isn’t just my favorite fantasy story, its my favorite story period. The central conflict is a battle between good and evil, the quintessential need to defeat evil. Sauron is a pure evil force that can’t be reasoned with, can’t be talked down and the Fellowship needs to succeed because if they fail, the world falls into darkness. There isn’t a Chosen One, just a group of people banding together because they must and because defeating Sauron is what’s right. Even as the world gets darker, and evil gains a little more of a foothold, there’s never a point where there’s no hope. Even after members of the Fellowship get separated, they remain part of the same story, and impact the journey the others are having. They are one part of an ongoing story.

Tolkien changed the way fantasy was written, and unfortunately, that meant a number of the themes in his writing were ignored or swept under the rug in other works. When a work is compared to Tolkien, it usually refers to the worldbuilding, but not the core themes. The Lord of the Rings is about more than just elves, dwarves, talking trees and defeating evil. It’s about having hope, despite seemingly insurmountable odds. It’s about power, and how absolute power corrupts absolutely, and a little power corrupts a little. Mostly, its about how the smallest person can change the course of the future.

Those are my favorite high fantasy series. What are yours?