July 27, 2017 • Cee • Holy Mother Cover

holymothercover

Inspired by What She Reads, Pure Imagination Blog, and Stacked.

I admit I’m a book cover snob. Who isn’t though?

Book covers are the first thing that attracts readers to a book. A good cover can draw someone is, just as a bad cover can easily draw someone away. It can essentially make or break a book. Holy, Mother Cover! is where I showcase the book covers that stand out (or make me cringe), and discuss cover changes.

(A big special thanks to Georgie at What She Reads for bestowing me this fabulous name and to Charlotte at The Simple Tales for creating the beautiful feature banner you see before you.)

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Cover Change: Tell Me Something Real by Calla Devlin

What a terrible mistake. Who approved the paperback of Tell Me Something Real? Because they need to get their eyes checked if they think it’s a great cover design. When you compare it to the beauty of the hardcover, I am at a loss of words.

I love the hardcover because the illustrations are gorgeous. The coloring of it is what makes it amazing. I like that the colors look semi-fade or rubbed off. I really like the title font because it meshes with the overall cover. However, the paperback, what even. The placement of the title is a mess. The positioning of the author’s name is awful too. The flowers are fake as hell. Just why.

Final Verdict: What cover do I like better? Hardcover.

Which cover design do you prefer? Would you buy the the hardcover or paperback cover?


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July 26, 2017 • Cee • Reviews

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero • July 11, 2017 • Doubleday Books
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SUMMER 1977. The Blyton Summer Detective Club (of Blyton Hills, a small mining town in Oregon’s Zoinx River Valley) solved their final mystery and unmasked the elusive Sleepy Lake monster—another low-life fortune hunter trying to get his dirty hands on the legendary riches hidden in Deboën Mansion. And he would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids.

1990. The former detectives have grown up and apart, each haunted by disturbing memories of their final night in the old haunted house. There are too many strange, half-remembered encounters and events that cannot be dismissed or explained away by a guy in a mask. And Andy, the once intrepid tomboy now wanted in two states, is tired of running from her demons. She needs answers. To find them she will need Kerri, the one-time kid genius and budding biologist, now drinking her ghosts away in New York with Tim, an excitable Weimaraner descended from the original canine member of the club. They will also have to get Nate, the horror nerd currently residing in an asylum in Arkham, Massachusetts. Luckily Nate has not lost contact with Peter, the handsome jock turned movie star who was once their team leader . . . which is remarkable, considering Peter has been dead for years.

The time has come to get the team back together, face their fears, and find out what actually happened all those years ago at Sleepy Lake. It’s their only chance to end the nightmares and, perhaps, save the world. finally able to embrace the complicated, chaotic true story of her life, and take center stage.

myreview

I received this book for free from Doubleday Books for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

First sentence: “She flung the door open to clamorous nonreaction, silhouetted down to a bulky jacket and a baseball cap, the blue wind blowing away the title card.”

♪ Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you? We need some help from you now! ♪

Any smart person will say, “stay far away!” from Blyton Hills. But not these kids—excuse me—adults. They’re detectives, through and through. They haven’t had their fill of sleuthing, especially since their last case—the Sleepy Lake case—continues to haunt them into adulthood. Time to bring the band together for old time’s sake. What could go wrong?

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July 19, 2017 • Cee • Comics

Comic Firsts

Comic Firsts, a feature where I talk about the first issues of comics that I’ve bought, received, or borrowed. It’s all about first impressions, what I like or didn’t like about the issue, and whether I would keep reading it beyond the first issue.

Fantasy creatures are living typical, unremarkable lives alongside humans, and barista Julie strives to be the most unremarkable of all. Normal job, normal almost-girlfriend, normal…werewolf transformations that happen when she gets upset? Yikes!

But all bets are off when she and her centaur best friend Chet find themselves in the middle of a magical conspiracy. Will Julie and Chet be able to save their friends? Is Julie’s dogged determination to be normal a lost cause? Who’s going to watch the coffee shop while our heroes are out saving the world?? — Image Comics

Moonstruck, I am…lovestruck with you. 

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July 14, 2017 • Cee • Comics

Comic Firsts

Comic Firsts, a feature where I talk about the first issues of comics that I’ve bought, received, or borrowed. It’s all about first impressions, what I like or didn’t like about the issue, and whether I would keep reading it beyond the first issue.

Like Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben once said, “with great power must come great responsibility,” and that’s something you should be aware of when you pick up Chip Zdarsky’s Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #1. You must willing to take responsible of the silliness you will read.

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July 12, 2017 • Cee • Reviews

Aftercare Instructions by Bonnie Pipkin • June 27, 2017 • Flatiron Books (Macmillan)
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“Troubled.” That’s seventeen-year-old Genesis according to her small New Jersey town. She finds refuge and stability in her relationship with her boyfriend, Peter—until he abandons her at a Planned Parenthood clinic during their appointment to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. The betrayal causes Gen to question everything.

As Gen pushes herself forward to find her new identity without Peter, she must also confront her most painful memories. Through the lens of an ongoing four act play within the novel, the fantasy of their undying love unravels line by line, scene by scene. Digging deeper into her past while exploring the underground theater world of New York City, she rediscovers a long-forgotten dream. But it’s when Gen lets go of her history, the one she thinks she knows, that she’s finally able to embrace the complicated, chaotic true story of her life, and take center stage.

myreview

I received this book for free from Flatiron Books for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

First sentence: “A Few Thing They Tell You: No food or drink for six hours prior to appointment time.”

When the boy you love abandons you at Planned Parenthood, what do you do? This is exactly what happens to Genesis after she terminates an unwanted pregnancy. She doesn’t understand why her boyfriend, Peter, abandoned her, so she’s left questioning everything that has lead her to that moment—him, her family, her friends, her forgotten Theater dreams.

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July 8, 2017 • Cee • Letters

Dear Edgar Cantero & Meddling Kids,

For fans of John Dies at the End and Welcome to Night Vale comes a tour de force of horror, humor, and H.P. Lovecraft. The surviving members of a forgotten teenage detective club (and their dog) must reunite as broken adults to finally solve the terrifying case that ruined them all and sent the wrong man to prison. Scooby Doo and the gang never had to do this!

1990. The teen detectives once known as the Blyton Summer Detective Club (of Blyton Hills, a small mining town in the Zoinx River Valley in Oregon) are all grown up and haven’t seen each other since their fateful, final case in 1977. Andy, the tomboy, is twenty-five and on the run, wanted in at least two states. Kerri, one-time kid genius and budding biologist, is bartending in New York, working on a serious drinking problem. At least she’s got Tim, an excitable Weimaraner descended from the original canine member of the team. Nate, the horror nerd, has spent the last thirteen years in and out of mental health institutions, and currently resides in an asylum in Arhkam, Massachusetts. The only friend he still sees is Peter, the handsome jock turned movie star. The problem is, Peter’s been dead for years.

The time has come to uncover the source of their nightmares and return to where it all began in 1977. This time, it better not be a man in a mask. The real monsters are waiting.

With raucous humor and brilliantly orchestrated mayhem, Edgar Cantero’s Meddling Kids taps into our shared nostalgia for the books and cartoons we grew up with, and delivers an exuberant, eclectic, and highly entertaining celebration of horror, life, friendship, and many-tentacled, interdimensional demon spawn.Goodreads

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